Vandread Stage 1: Wings of Freedom
by Myevltwin
Summary: A remake of the First Stage for Vandread, a new machine and pilot with a history over Taraaku and Mejarru. What Involvments does he have with the Pirates of Mejarru and why does he know so much about everyone?
1. Alex

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 1 Alex

"Sir, I don't understand my orders." A male questioned over his headset. His mech flew through the dark void of space near a large blue world. He didn't sound too happy about his _mission_, but his commander didn't seem to catch his slightly hidden complaining.

"_We've detected an unknown object in your area and since you're the only one in that vicinity, we need you to check it out; then report your findings." _a male replied over the net.

"This object, can you tell me the distances to it?"

"_The object is on the other side of the planet." _A female answered.

"Luna, is there anything on the other side of the planet besides the object?" He smiled slightly behind his black helmet. The sound of the only female on the bridge of the Station brightened his day just bit.

"_The target is alone at the moment. But remember, computers can lie. Also, the radios are fixing to start cutting out." _She replied.

"Rodger that, I'll start sending emails every hour, but try to find a way to boost the radio frequency for this area." He ordered, pushing on the throttle, accelerating around the aqua world.

"_The radio towers that were in the area have all… … emails…" _the radio went dead. The pilot growled slightly, hating the dead silence that was now filling his ears.

_I hate computers. _He mussed as the target came into view.

His eyes scanned the damage of the single ship. Its golden half was leaking a cloud of white mist that his scanners picked up as Oxygen. A small window on the bottom of the bottom half, was cracked, but slowly sealing itself. Small particles of debris that flew beside the vessel latched on to certain areas, quickly fussing themselves with organic like crystals. The top half, a silver, sleek like vessel that was littered with holes and leaking the same gas, was having the same thing happen; a thin layer of the crystals covered the holes, repairing them slowly, but surely.

His eyes slowly scanned for an opening, soon landing on what looked like a hanger gate. His fingers quickly went to work on a few switches, buttons and levers in his cockpit. His machine responded to his commands, slowing down and easing into the large hole in the ship.

The crashing sound of glass breaking underneath the weight of his machine filled the still air. The small particles from the broken crystals slowly began floating near his hatch as it quickly opened. He once again growled about hating computers as he leapt to the ground, marveling over the power of low gravity as he touched down with a soft PAT.

A quick slamming sound filled his ears, causing him to whip around, 9mm. in hand and pointing towards the former hole that he entered from.

He was sealed in.

A small screen appeared inside his helmet, checking the surrounding area for any toxic gases and pure oxygen that still remained on the vessel.

A blimp on his screen from inside his helmet gave him the okay for him to breath without his spacesuit's oxygen system. With a small grunt of approval, he flipped the latches that held his helmet in place, to insure that nothing toxic ever slipped in or that any of his oxygen ever escaped, off. His short black, spiky hair stood up from the low gravity he was still filling as his sapphire blue eyes began scanning for any signs of a threat.

He quickly pulled a small headset out, placing it to the left side of his face as a small green screen appeared over the left eye, blinking slightly as it read the surrounding area before he attached a long black cable to a small screen on his left arm. The screen slowly blinked to life, with a welcoming screen blinking on.

_Alpha-32: checking all systems._

_Oxygen levels: Normal_

_Carbine dioxide levels: Low_

_Power supply: Normal_

_Radar system: Normal_

_All systems green. Good Morning Alex._

With a satisfied growl, he lowered his arm, arming his now free hand with a standard Mark 9mm. Its design was converted from the old Desert Eagle he used during Boot Camp, but was all black with a laser light attachment and sniper scope when firing from a greater distance then needed.

His footsteps were quiet and deadly as he slowly slipped through the crystals that sprang out in random directions, some crashing through other walls or other crystals. His mind raced with thoughts with each step he took. His mind, racing with his training he received during Boot Camp, keeping him on his toes as he reached three strange fighter crafts.

He slowly started taking photos of the planes before him, stopping after his second photo of the blue ship as a soft moan caught his ears.

Alex spun around, pulling out his two pistols and aiming them in the area his scanners picked up the moan. His body acted on its own, jumping behind the nearest crystal, thanking the designers of the ship for none see through rocks that he took cover behind.

Footsteps filled the silent air as they headed in his direction. Alex readied his twin weapons, ready for the source of the sound to appear in front of him. A bead of sweat dripped down his face as he waited for the target to appear.

"Dita, stay in the area." A female voice ordered. The footsteps stopped short, just a few feet away from his hiding place. "Dita, get back over here and watch this man. I don't want him waking up and attacking us from behind." 

"Leader, he's a good alien and he…" Dita, the person the woman had been talking to, began to protest.

"He's a man, and they're our enemy!" She snapped, walking up to her comrade. Alex braced himself for anything as the footsteps ended behind his hiding place. "Alien or not, he is our enemy and he must not get away from us! Now pay attention next time, rather then chase after such childish changes! You almost got us all killed with your beliefs!"

Dita slowly began crying, a sound of pain and weakness to Alex at the moment. He readied himself for his moment to attack. He knew they were a threat to his life and probably to the rest of his kind. He slowly began counting backwards from 10, prepping himself for the attack.

Another low moan soon reached his ears, this one to his left and sounding rather close. He pressed a few buttons, his alloy armor phasing out of existence, turning him transparent.

"My head… it hurts so much."

"Jura, are you okay?" the leader questioned, staying at her post.

"Yeah, I think so." A ruffling noise filled the room as she slowly walked over to her comrades. Her feet slid across the metal floor letting Alex know that his three targets were not in top form. "Say, Meia, do you remembering anything that happened to us? All I remember was Dita chasing after a man… and then a loud bang."

"That's correct, and I intend to notify the captain about this." Meia, the leader, snapped. A soft chuckle grasped their attention. Alex cringed slightly.

"Captain?!" the three gasped.

"So, this is what a man looks like?" she sounded old, but a kinder and softer kind of tone, much like Dita. "I don't remember them looking this funny."

"Sorry Captain; if I remained in contact with my team…" Meia began.

"Don't worry about. I'm sure you did everything you could to prevent such a thing. So don't blame yourself for the small things you didn't foresee." The captain interjected, ending Meia's apology instantly.

Meia breathed a sigh of relief before her captain continued. "However, a good Flight Captain should always know her team like the back of her hand." Meia cringed at these words. It just screamed "Failure" to her. Something she never liked hearing anyways. "Now, I want you all to check this portion of the ship from top to bottom. Then, when you're done, report back to me. We already have one man in a cell and I'm sure he could use some company." Her footsteps began to reseed into a hallway like structure. This was something Alex was trained in: Figuring out the enemies movements just by using sound alone.

"Alright, you heard her! Spread out and search the area! I want three of you to take this man to the cell while the rest of you stay and search this part of the ship!" Meia barked. "Magno doesn't want anymore surprises from us or the enemy."

Alex sat still, eyes scanning the women as they ran by with pitchfork like weapons in hand. Alex had seen almost every kind of weapon in his life, and knew that in the hands of a specially trained solider, they could do anything. Taking no chances, literally meant, "No taking chances" at this point.

He quickly went back to his small computer screen that sat on his arm. _Five heat signatures behind me. Three more heat signatures to the right. Two more Heat signatures to the left. Eight heat signatures in front. Man, can this day get any worse? _His thoughts were brought to halt at the sound of gun being cocked. His eyes scanned to the left and found a figure in a skimpy outfit holding a Glock, about thirteen yards away from him.

"You find something Barnette?" Meia asked, walking in front of Alex. She stopped directly in front of him, not taking her eyes off her friend.

"Meia, come here." Barnette whispered. Meia's eyes narrowed when her gun totting friend motioned with her eyes to the rock that Alex sat in front of. Meia jumped to her friend's side, aimed a golden ring at Alex, though not sure if she was actually aiming at him, or an empty space, while Barnette continued. "I saw a flash of movement there a moment ago. I'm not sure, but I think we might have a few more men on this ship."

"You think it's some kind of Special Forces unit again?" Barnette whispered.

"Don't know, but…" Meia's voice trailed off as she brought a silver communicator to her lips. "All teams, report to my location. I think we may have another Special Forces unit in the area. Remember what these men our capably of. Captain, be on your guard." She flipped the communicator back into her pocket of the white and black space suit she wore.

Alex cursed himself. He had been discovered and so easily. _Damn it… I guess this is what I get for not paying attention. _He cursed himself again as he slowly stood up, hoping they wouldn't notice.

"Freeze!" barked three more women. Alex slowly turned his head, getting a good look at a woman with blond hair and a black dress that showed off her figure quite well. It was a sight that most men would love to see, but he was in trouble and letting his mind wonder at a moment like this was not acceptable.

"Alright, I surrender, but first…" his alloy armor was brought to full view as he appeared like a ghost to the stunned women. "I need to speak to your captain. My name is Alex V. Switchfoot, Captain of the Alpha-32 secret division of the Untied Space Core of the Spec Ops SWAT Forces. I mean you no harm." He kicked his weapons to Barnette's feet, watching as she slowly picked them up with a sense of interest.

His armor was solid black with gold lines running through it. A black fabric like mask lay over his mouth and nose, which he slowly removed. A pair of black metallic gloves with golden spheres on each one rested over his hands, and single metal backpack proved his oxygen that rested over a black bulletproof vest. He was an odd sight to the women, but the women weren't taking any chances with someone of his class.

(-)

"Well that certainly was fast." Magno, the captain, mussed as she took in the three men.

Hibiki, the man that had been found in the hanger, looked like an engineer and was covered with cuts, bruises, and his skin proved he worked in a metal shop.

The second man, Duerro, was a doctor that fit the bill in a matter of all standard doctor ware. A lab coat, medical tools, and a pen holster in his coat pocket near his chest. A long strand of hair blocked the view of his right eye, and he stood a little taller then the two other men.

Alex was stripped of his vest, gadgets, ammo, and a silver necklace with a cross that he told them was quite deer to him. His things were being checked over by Barnette at the moment since she found his weapons to be deadlier then what they first thought after accidentally setting the large pistol off and watching as it busted a good portion of the crystal, in the hanger, apart.

The three men were bond and forced to sit in uncomfortable chairs, while the guards had their weapons ready incase they tried anything funny.

"I'm Mango, Captain of this vessel, and these are my pirates." Magno, the elderly lady, said with a smile on her wrinkled face.

"My name is Alex V. Switchfoot, Captain of the Alpha-32 secret division of the Untied Space Core of the Spec Ops SWAT Forces. I mean you and your crew no harm." Alex re-introduced himself with no emotion in his voice. "I came here on a recon mission after you appeared on our radars. I was sent to investigate this area when you appeared. We've had lots of stations destroyed in this area and I was sent to investigate. I'm not pointing fingers at the moment, but I believe you may be the cause behind these atrocities that have been plaguing us."

"I see, but I thought you just said you weren't pointing fingers." Magno joked. Alex didn't find it very funny, but let the old woman finish her statement. "I suppose you would like an explanation for our being here then, huh?" Alex nodded.

"We were raiding a male ship at our home world, and somehow ended up here. Our vessel was hit by two of their long range missiles, but something saved what was left of this ship and the piece we were going after. That's about all we know."

"I assume the bottom half of this vessel is yours then?" Magno nodded. Alex looked down at the young man that was tied up and had a red hand print etched on the side of his face. "When I arrived on this ship, I overhead a good portion of your crews conversation; I would like to know why you view men as an enemy."

Hibiki, the engineer looking boy, scoffed at this, turning away from the women in disgust. Alex's brow shot up at this. Alex tilted his head slightly, as if to get a better look, as he examined the expression of the three guards around them.

"You're not from Taraaku, are you?" Duerro questioned, breaking the silence that had engulfed the room. Alex slowly shook his head, though his eyes narrowed slightly at the very mention of the planet. "We're from Taraaku, man's world, and are first year soldiers in the fight against the ultimate enemy."

"Yeah, and your talking to one of them!" Hibiki snapped.

"Is there something wrong with talking to women?" Alex asked, eyes now burning with fire as he stared down the young man.

"Yes, if you speak to them, your ears and vocal cords will blow up!" he lashed out, returning the glare.

Alex stared at Hibiki, completely dumbfounded. He had heard a lot of stories in his life. Some funny, others bad, but this one was way out there; even for him.

"Then why haven't my ears and vocal cords exploded?" This was more of a statement rather then a question. Hibiki was dumbfounded while Duerro gave a low "Hm" as he began thinking about why something like that wouldn't happen.

Duerro was the one reasonably sane person that cared very little for the superstition his people believed in, and was on board for the soul reason of helping them. He doctored a few of the injured women before they were in the mess they now found themselves in, and he remembered speaking to a few of them without such a problem happening.

"I find that there is no logical proof of such things, but we were taught that, so it's something we simply believe in." Duerro finally spoke.

"And you believe this only _because _someone said that?" Duerro and Hibiki both nodded. "Well, that's about the dumbest thing I've heard all day."

"Not like it matters what you believe in, since there going to be eating our livers soon." Hibiki added.

"Eat… your livers?" a few of the guards crocked out between their fits of laughter.

Alex quirked a brow while Duerro gave him a look that just said "We were taught this" causing Alex to moan over such stupid beliefs.

_And this was supposed to be my day off._ Alex growled in his head.

(-)

"Yeah, Mr. Alien is really amazing." Dita stammered for the hundredth time. Her companion, a slightly older woman with a large bulge for a stomach, smiled sincerely as she continued to gaze at the stars through her telescope. "You should have seen it, there was this large bang, and then I woke up and he was holding my hand." Dita hugged herself as she twirled around.

"That's amazing Dita." She spoke, smiling as she turned to her friend.

"Say, Ezra, what do you think the others are doing at this moment?" Dita asked, placing a finger to her lip. Her ability to remain on one single subject had reached its limits, though the tone in her voice made her sound rather worried.

"I don't know Dita, but I'm sure they're okay." Ezra said, smiling warmly as she looked through her telescope.

"How's it coming along?" a voice spoke. Dita and Ezra slowly turned around to see a girl with big glasses, long/fat pigtails, and tech like outfit.

"Not to good, Parfait." Ezra admitted. "I don't recognize any of these constellations. I truly have no idea where we are." 

"Don't worry about it; I'm sure we'll think of something." Parfait told her. Ezra smiled slightly, turning back to her device while Parfait seemed deep in thought.

"Something wrong, Parfait?" Dita questioned, poking her head slightly.

"Well… we've been analyzing the bridge and the strange blue platform for any signs of controls, but we keep turning up nothing." She admitted.

"You think Mr. Alien knows how it works?" Dita questioned, placing a finger to her bottom lip as if deep in thought.

"No Dita, I doubt that _Mr. Alien_ knows how it works. He's a man after all." Parfait stated, walking away.

(-)

"No, it's no good, Boss; we can't cut through these strange crystals." A tall woman stated. "Our laser drills and cutting torches can't cut through it."

"Is there anything we haven't tried, Gascgone?" Magno, via video communication feed, asked.

"Unfortunately, no, we've tried everything and this stuff still continues to grow." She growled, though more to herself, rather then to her commander. "I think going after this power source was something of a bad idea. Parfait says she's been trying to get it to work and respond to us in anyway possible, but no matter how hard she tries, nothing seems to happen."

"Alright, keep at it; we might just be able to get out of this as soon as we detach ourselves from the top half. Keep in touch and don't try anything to foolish." Magno said, sounding completely disappointed.

"Right, oh and tell Celtic that is "Gascgone" not "Gascgo"!" she growled, raising a clenched fist to her face.

(-)

Magno sighed in defeat, turning her video screen off as she turned to face the now four captured men. Bart Garsuss, the only true looking solider of the Taraaku military was the only one dressed to fit the bill. He wore the traditional Taraaku uniform. His blond hair shinned with a golden glow and his mouth had the ability to never stay shut for more then ten seconds.

"Well Goldilocks, you don't say." Magno entered into his strange conversation. He was talking how this was part of some plan that his "Superiors" had planned. He had also mentioned something about Alex being part of their division to take back the ship, but was reckless and got tagged in the surprise jump.

Needless to say, everyone wanted to hurt him at the moment.

"Just you wait; any minute now, this place will be crawling with our Super Soldiers. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already on and tearing your women apart." He gave an evil smile before he found himself on the ground with Hibiki's foot pressed hard to his head.

"SHUT UP!" he roared, slamming his small foot onto his head for good measure.

Bart let out a large cry of pain as Alex began pressing a few buttons around his wrist armor. A small flopping sound soon followed as he kicked a small ID card towards Magno. "That ID card can prove _I'm _not from Taraaku." He stated calmly while his sapphire blue eyes drilled a hole into the blonds' head.

Magno picked up the item slowly, smiling at the emotionless face that stared back from the card. Name, Military ID, Data of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of enlistment, and Blood Type were all on the card, giving Magno the full just of who he was.

"Ha, the old fake card trick I see. Not bad…" Hibiki once again slammed his foot down on Bart's head, hoping to knock some sense into him.

"If you're not careful, I'll be the one to step on your pee sized brain!" Alex growled between clinched teeth. "And that is something you don't want to have done! This body armor of mine isn't just to provide protection!"

"Really…" Magno grinned, a hint of amusement seeping from her mouth.

"Captain!"

Magno slowly turned to face a confused looking Parfait as she raced towards her with all speed. "Captain, I'm sorry, but we still can't get this ship to move. We'll keep trying, but every time we get close to doing so, the screens go blank, and asks for "He who is worthy"."

"Any ideas as to what that means?" Magno asked, clearly not very surprised. It HAD been a long day, a strange day, and a day that would probably cause her stay awake at night just for the sheer fact that it happened and she would wonder how it could have been prevented.

"The ship needs a man to drive it."

Magno turned to the sound of the voice. She wasn't too surprised by the tone that came from Alex, but then again, why would she. She had his card that proved he wasn't from Taraaku. She had his reasons for being in the area. And now he just practically gave her the most sarcastic remark of the entire four hours he had been on the ship.

Alex sighed. "The message you get says "He" in it, meaning that this ship, if you can call this hunk of floating junk that, needs a male pilot to fly it!" He seethed.

"But this is a female ship too, so that would mean that we could fly it too." Parfait countered, smiling slightly at the thought of putting a man in his place.

"Tell me something, where in the message does it say "She" and then get back to me when you find the answer." Bart started laughing before Hibiki's foot once again came crashing down on his head. The guards did nothing but watch from the sidelines as Hibiki, the smallest of the four men, practically beat a man that was slightly older and taller then him, into the ground.

"Well then, are any of you Helmsmen?" Magno asked, smiling at her own counter.

Not so surprisingly, Bart stood up, presented himself with the military standard solute, or tried to anyways, and said, "I was the helmsmen for the ship before you attacked it. I will fly this ship to safety if it's the last thing I do," without a hint that he just lied, written on his face.

Magno was about to cast a quick remark for his words, but a wall exploding and pinning one of the guards to the ground caused her to stop before she could open her mouth. In seconds, Duerro was by her side, scanning with his one good eye, as Alex kicked away the rubble with his legs while the other guards lifted the bigger items off her.

"Don't move her; she could have broken her neck in the fall… or worse." Duerro ordered. His eyes turned to Magno, as if asking for permission to aid the young woman. Magno nodded slightly as his restraints slipped off so he could slowly check her over for any signs of back or neck injuries that would prevent them from taking her to the Infirmary for better care.

"Can this day get any worse?" Alex asked out loud, as if talking to God. Another explosion rocked the ship, sending everyone to the ground hard. "I thought so," he growled.

"Captain, I'm going out to defend the ship." Meia stated, running down the long corridor. A small communicator was soon flipped open, and placed next to her ear. "Barnette, were under attack. Can you get out?"

"_Meia, Paiway's locked us in the shower room!" _Barnette's cries of discomfort, clearly visible. _"I'm sorry, but she's not going to let us out for another thirty minutes!"_

"_We need to get all those icky male germs off you!" _Paiway's voice rang over the com as Meia mentally cursed her day and Paiway before snapping her device shut. Jura and Dita slowly appeared beside her, running as fast as they could.

"Meia, what's going on?!" Jura asked, breathing heavily.

"We're going to defend the ship from what ever is attacking us." She stated, not once faltering in tone or composure.

(-)

"Time to put this message to the test then." Magno mussed, looking over at the golden haired boy. "You," she pointed to Bart, "with me."

Bart gulped slightly before Alex stood beside him, looking serious as ever. "Magno, permission to leave the ship."

Magno was stunned that he would ask for permission to leave the ship, let alone in a battle that was undetermined in size at the moment. Her eyes lingered with his, seeing the look of not fear, but of a stead fast soldier willing to do his part.

"For what purpose?" She asked, waiting for the answer she knew was coming.

"To defend this ship." His tone didn't falter. His eyes showed no lie. His restraints were removed as the remaining two guards, and a woman with long white hair that curled at the bottom walked over to him, ready to escort him to the hanger.

"BC, make sure that he gets to his machine, if he has one, and take the small one with you. Meia told me that he was last seen getting into one of the Vanguards before the explosion took place." Mango ordered, following Parfait, a talking Naval Bot that called itself "Pyoro" and a worried looking Bart.

"Hey, you with the pigtails," Parfait turned to face Alex, slightly confused by why he hadn't ran off to fight yet. "I need my gear back." Parfait blinked in surprise, but threw him his headset, wrist computer, and his vest with the oxygen tank still attached, to him. "Thanks,"

"Right this way…" BC stated, smiling as she walked down the long corridor that Meia had used.

(-)

"How does it work?" Magno, smiling slightly, asked.

"It's a new type of technology we invented a few weeks ago." Bart stammered, trying to delay the inevitable for as long as he could. "We primarily used it for working in dangerous areas that were unstable and…"

"I don't care about how it was used in the past." Mango interrupted, not very impressed with his delay tactic, as she smiled playfully towards him. "Show us how it works, and then you can go back to the nice comfy cell." She joked.

"Well, you see it works like this…" Bart couldn't finish his statement as a blue arm shot out, grabbed his leg, and drug his ghost white form into the strange blue abyss, leaving only a small repel behind.

A moment of silence appeared between the two remaining people that stood over the blue mass. Magno was just as shocked as her little robot friend was, though she was able to utter, "That's new," while the Navy Bot, simply said, "Pyoro," as it floated beside her.

Without any warning, the ship jerked in multiple directions, some faster than others, sending everyone to ground rather hard. No sooner had this happened, a voice that everyone would just disappear, reappeared.

"AW, GET AWAY FROM ME!" It was Bart, and sounding rather terrified at the moment. This, to a few people that were actually on the bridge at the moment, began laughing hysterically at the sounds and pleas for help.

"Hey, stop thrashing around in there!" Magno barked, slowly getting back up with the help of the little robot. "You could get someone killed doing something as stupid as that."

"HELP ME!"

Magno sighed. The day had just increased a notch on her belt for _Worst Days Ever_. Why did bad things always happen on such easy missions? It was question she wanted answered, even though she knew she wouldn't get one.

"This is just another day in paradise, huh?" She mussed, slowly walking over to her chair.

(-)

Hibiki, BC, Alex, and the escorting guards all slowly stood up from the strange jerks that had just plagued them. Alex and BC weren't complaining, they knew it probably could be worse. Hibiki was another matter. He hadn't said anything since he left with the team to go help outside. Hell, he wasn't even watching where he was going. He was constantly bumping into things, and muttering something to himself.

"What Channel are you on?" Alex asked, pressing a few buttons on his wrist computer.

"Channel 2." BC informed him. She hadn't known him for more than four hours and already he was getting put in the, _I like this person_ file. Then again, it was probably only because he was willing to help out and defend them, rather than his personality stand point. He was a man after all.

"Do you think you can work along side our pilots without killing them?" BC asked.

"I'll try to negotiate first, that's how I do things." Alex commented coldly. His headset was slowly moved into position as the green screen once again appeared over his eye. "I can't guarantee that it'll stop them, but it should give you enough time to get out of this area since you have the ship moving again. I'll follow you once I've either killed them, made them surrender, or decided to runaway like a scared dog with its tail between its legs."

"What's the likely outcome you predict?"

"Killing them, actually," It was odd saying that the way he did. It actually had no hint of fear or remorse for the loss of life he was about to take. It sounded more like he was talking about the weather actually.

"I…"

The group stopped. They slowly turned to face the source of the weak sounding voice. It was Hibiki. Alex and BC didn't look too stunned as he continued. "I'm not a pilot." he admitted it.

"I'm going ahead, you deal with him." Alex stated, now running ahead towards the hanger.

"I'm… I'm actually a mechanic on Taraaku." Why was this so hard? "I make the Vanguards, I don't pilot them." Why was this so hard?! "I was only onboard because I told the guys that I would steal the machine that I put my symbol on to, to show them how strong I was."

"Why wait till now?" BC didn't act surprised. She just continued with her unemotional look that Hibiki refused to look at. He couldn't even look a woman in the eye, how pitiful.

"Because… I… I don't wanna die." He stammered.

"No one wants to die, but we all die eventually; that's why we exist." BC slowly began walking down the way they came. "I was always told that the strong protect the weak, and that men also protected the weak, no matter the situation."

Hibiki said nothing. He had nothing to say. No witty comment. No smart ass remark. He had nothing other then the cold empty floors.

"Leave him, he won't do anything." BC commented coldly, clearly not very impressed.

(-)

Bart's screams of pain and fear had been going on for almost a full five minutes now. His screams pain was a slight joyful thing to hear, despite the situation at hand. The screams of fear were, in a way, rather amusing to their minds as well. They, Magno and Pyoro, remembered quite clearly that he told that he was an Ace Pilot that was assigned to pilot this ship, but, they knew he had been lying to them right from the get-go and were waiting patiently to put him in his place.

"You know what," Amarone, a young woman with dark skin and braided dark hair, began. "For a man, he sure screams a lot." As if on que, Bart's cries of pain and help entered their ears yet again.

"Look at this way; if one of us was in there at the moment, I'm sure we'd probably act the same way." BC stated, walking up to Amarone with a slight smile.

Everyone paled slightly at the thought of being in the device at the moment, and then quickly thanked him for being the Test Dummy. As soon as the thought swept through their minds, they quickly went back to watching the fight outside.

(-)

An all white Dread went soaring through the dark void of space that surrounded her. Her enemy was nothing more then red dots on her screens, and through her hatch, they looked like nothing more then a large cube with two legs and two arms that did nothing really. The real threat was the short bursts of red lasers that it shot out of its tip on the center of the cube like structure.

"Dita, behind you!" Meia barked, taking down another Cube. She didn't know why they were attacking her, nor did she care. All she cared about was the safety of her team and the unnamed ship.

Dita twisted and twirled through enemy fire, returning with her own, shooting only one of the five in front of her down. She didn't have the skills of her fellow pilots, but what she lacked in skill, she made up for in courage and heart. She may have been a rookie, but sometimes, trying was a lot better then doing nothing.

Dita screamed loudly as she was nicked by enemy fire. "BAD ALIENS!"

"Jura to your left!" Meia howled, blasting another three of the strange machines. The onslaught of the robotic creatures, just never seemed to stop. They came from no where, and were quickly multiplying with every single one shot down. If one went down, three more would take its place. The numbers were ungodly and only getting worse.

"Dita, watch out!" Jura bellowed. Dita had no time to react. The Cube was directly in front of her and priming its weapon for a direct hit on her cockpit. Dita managed to cry out for her alien to come and rescue her before closing her eyes and bringing her machine to a dead halt. The next thing she knew, she could hear someone screaming in fear.

Dita slowly opened her eyes to see blue wings hovering over her cockpit. It was strange to see such a machine, but then again, aliens did use strange machines, right?

"I'm Alex V. Switchfoot, pilot of the ZGMF X10A Freedom. I here by order you to power down your weapons and leave this area immediately!" he barked.

Dita sat there, stunned. To actually have an alien save her, but not just any ordinary alien, but to have Mr. Suit save her was something she could only dream of. Her mind slowly came back to reality as Bart's cries of fear entered her ears. He was mumbling something about a "Demon", that didn't make sense to her.

(-)

Bart had yet to stop his screams of fear and his rants about a demon. Magno and BC were the ones to piece his words together. "This is the machine that appeared over Taraaku five years ago." Magno stated, a slight evil smile forming on her lips.

"But even so, what was it doing that far out?" BC asked, turning to face her captain. The blank looks she received as she turned had grasped her attention rather quickly. "You didn't hear about the white machine that appeared over Taraaku space with thirty other machines, leaving only two thirds of Taraaku's fighting force intact?"

The bridge bunnies shook their heads, they too now feeling a slight sense of fear as they looked back at the white machine with blue wings.

"This possibly is the machine that appeared over Taraaku five years ago, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake." Magno began. "Its pilot is a mystery, but I'm guessing that this boy isn't the pilot that flew that machine back then. Though the information, the true information that is, was sketchy on why it appeared; the machine was believed to have been the work of Mejarru military force, but that was only a lie that the men used to make more lies about women."

"You mean this is the machine that caused all the lies about us?" Amarone questioned, glaring at the back of the machine before her.

(-)

The orange eyes of the white machine with blue wings continued to glare at the machines before it. Alex hadn't moved a muscle since his arrival, and his rifle was still being pointed at the damaged machine he had disabled to save Dita.

"Mr. Suit…"

"Hey, you in the blue fighter, are you okay?" Alex asked, interrupting Dita before she could finish.

"Yes, I'm okay." she whispered.

"I'm sorry I'm late, but I had to send a message to my people to let them know that I was okay. I promise that it won't happen again." His voice sounded saddened by something, but Dita thought nothing of it at the moment.

"These things aren't replying to your demands you know." Jura howled from inside her red Dread. "What kind of man are you, asking for them to power down? I thought all men loved fighting. You are from Taraaku after all."

"I'm NOT from Taraaku!" Alex lashed out venomously. Jura cringed slightly over the tone of his voice, but then again, she was rather happy to hear such a thing at the moment. It just proved that all men were evil people in her eyes.

"_Then explain why your machine appeared over Taraaku five years ago!" _Bart snapped back, over the com system.

"I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you." Alex snarled. "Now, I think I asked for you to power down or suffer the consequences."

The machines response to this, they opened fire on them. Meia zipped through the enemy fire, returning with her own. Alex was continuing his diplomacy tactic while the other two Dread pilots continued fighting while ignoring Alex's requests for them to stop.

"Damn it, stand down or be fired upon!" Alex continued his tactic, hoping the strange machines would stop their fighting and listen to reason.

_Damn it, this isn't working. What's wrong with these guys? Why don't they listen to me? Are they deaf… _Alex thoughts were cut off as a loud cry echoed into his mind. He quickly turned to see Jura being hammered by a few of the strange machines. One was latched onto her, suffering from her barrel roll tactic, while three more were shooting at her.

"I'm giving you one last chance to power down! I advise you to stop now, or be fired upon!" He roared, flying towards the enemy with his rifle shooting at them. A few of the beams scratched the enemy's hull, but a few suffered from a few shots to arms and legs, powering them down instantly.

"Forget your ideals, just shoot them down!" Jura begged, continuing her barrel roll tactic.

"Jura!" Dita cried. "Mr. Suit, please help us!" Dita's cries fell into Alex's ears, causing him to release his control slightly.

_She sounds so much like him on that day…_

Alex began firing at the enemy, killing all with dead on accuracy. His shots were precise and never a miss. The enemy finally realized that he was a true threat and began attacking him in mass, using the same tactic as they were using on the three Dread pilots.

Alex shot every single mech down that was trying to ground Jura at the moment. She blinked in confusion for a moment before going back to shooting her own targets down. She made a mental note to thank him in some way.

"You, in the blue fighter; what's your name?" Alex asked; his tone back to normal.

"It's Dita Liebely, Mr. Suit."

Alex gave no reply, but kept up his firing. Within a span of three minutes, the team of four had destroyed everything but a large organic like ship that was the source of the red machines. It was shaped like an egg or a dumpling, and was about the size of the pirate ship.

The egg like ship quickly spat out a large block that turned itself into the red machines again. The four fighters growled dangerously as they powered up, charging the four beaten machines.

"_All right, Hibiki the Man is here!" _

(-)

Magno sat in her chair, worried. Not because of the white machine, not because she had men onboard her ship, but because she had too few fighters outside at the moment and they had been fighting non stop for nearly twenty minutes with no end in sight.

"BC, prepare to give the order to abandon ship." BC looked back at her commander, eyes full of worry. They had no place to run too. They had no place to hide, and what was worse was that they had no idea where the escape pods were at the moment.

"Hey, you with the white hair!" Hibiki snarled, voice and face appearing on screen. "I… I wanna help out, to prove that I exist." BC looked back at Hibiki, eyes shinning with a sense of glee. She knew he was no pilot, but given the circumstance, anyone wanting to test their luck against an unknown enemy was more then welcome to try. "These damn handcuffs are the only thing stopping me however, so let me go!"

"BC?" Magno questioned, a brow slightly raised.

BC waved her off with a quick hand gesture before smiling up at the screen. "You do realize that you could die right?" Hibiki just huffed at her words. "Very well then, it IS your life." She pressed a small button, and a few seconds later, a snapping sound filled the air and was followed by a thumping sound.

(-)

Hibiki stared up at his golden machine for a brief moment. His eyes still had a sense of fear, but his will to prove that he existed overruled that fear. He had to do this to show them that he existed. He had to prove his worth. He had to prove it to everyone that he was who he said he was.

"Alright partner, I may not know how to pilot you, but I'll try, I'll try to pilot you with my mind." Hibiki stated, staring at the strange controls.

Hibiki started thinking back to all the weapons the designers he worked for said it had. He remembered the Thunder Fist, the Battle Axe, the Energy Chainsaw, and a few other things.

He mentally reached out, and was surprised when his golden machine mimicked his movements. Placing one hand on the ground, he boosted himself off the ground and free of the crystal shards that had developed around its body. His machine hunched over before arching itself backwards as if to pop its back.

With a satisfied grin, he grasped the launcher platform tightly, getting ready to go and show his stuff. The launcher slowly began to warm up, waiting for its passenger to give it the okay. Hibiki grinned, giving into the small hint of fear he was feeling before the launcher catapulted forward. The sheer force of the takeoff was so strong that he became stuck to the back of his seat.

When he exited the ship, his grin turned to one of fear as five Cubes appeared before him, blasting away. Hibiki did a few odd maneuvers that left the women and Alex questioning the boy's sanity. He looked like a fish out of water to tell the truth. His arms were flailing around along side with his legs. The only thing that made it worse was him screaming, "Alright, Hibiki the Man is here," causing almost everyone to bust up laughing if not for the strange predicament they were in.

The machines quickly turned to attack Hibiki, not caring about the other four, much to their surprise. Meia was left floored when Hibiki's cry of, "Thunder Fist," reached her ears as she watched him punch the air. Alex questioned his sanity even further when he screamed, "Energy Chainsaw," and reached for nothing. Jura got a kick out of watching him get blasted from all directions and listening to his screams of pain.

Dita, however, was the only one who seemed to have faith in the boy as she zoomed towards him, pushing the cries of her friends' pleas for her to not follow him out of her mind. The only thing she cared about was helping her alien and nothing more.

Hibiki paid no attention to the blue machine that was tailing him at the moment. His mind was dead set on proving himself. He needed to do this, even though he was pinned by eight of the red machines and was face-to-face with the egg like ship that was priming a red orb over its hatch.

Red beams were soon shot from the egg like carrier, slamming into the golden machine. Everyone watched with sad eyes as a blue blur crashed into the blast, destroying it in the process. Everyone turned away, tears sliding down their faces as they whispered, "Dita" for a few seconds.

Inside the ball of fire, twisted metal and smoke, a pair of yellow eyes glowed brightly from inside the chaos. No one noticed until a pair of blue metal hands took firm hold of the metal, bending it with ease. The egg like carrier was also unaware until the same hand grabbed hold of it, not letting go for a moment. It didn't even let go when it tore a hole in the organic armor. A pair of white cannons that lay on its back flipped on top its shoulders, glowing brightly as it released a stream of white energy that pierced through the organic armor of the Egg Carrier. With a mighty explosion, the organic beast was destroyed, spewing its organic alloy over the battlefield.

When the dust settled, the blue giant stood firm at the spot where the strange vessel once stood, shinning brightly, like a beacon of hope. Alex was now questioning Magno's story as he heard a soft voice that everyone, minus Alex, thought they would never hear again. "Mr. Alien, that was amazing." The voice belonged to none other then Dita, bringing smiles to everyone's faces.

"IS THIS THE PROOF OF MY EXISTENCE?!" Hibiki screamed, not two seconds later.


	2. Completed Transformation

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 2 Completed Transformation

"Our food and water rations are at fifty percent, and are weaponry is at a midlevel of eighty percent." BC stated. A diagram was beside her on a screen that showed everything she was talking about. "We've concluded so far, that we are about three hundred and sixty days away from Mejarru, if we take the current course through this region."

"What about pilot wise?" Magno asked, not liking the look of things at the moment.

"We have only forty pilots as of now, that's including the two men." Meia reported. Magno looked down at a screen that showed the three men from Taraaku without any cloths on at the moment, with Hibiki and Bart running for their lives as the women spread them with a hydro pump. Alex was in the corner with his helmet on, preventing the water from getting into his suit.

"As of right now, the pilot and helmsmen aren't taking a liking to the other pilot for some reason." Gascgone added. The three women turned their attention to the toothpick user as she continued. "Those two seem to call him "Demon" for some reason, and haven't said very much to him other then the occasional insult."

"If they kill him then it's not our problem." Meia huffed.

"Those men have good reasons for hating him, but that boy might have even greater reasons for hating them at the moment." Magno stated, closing the display. "As for the strange machines that you fought earlier, what do we know about them?"

"Alex says he doesn't know anything about them." BC started. "He says that's the first time he's ever run across something like them and said he would know if they ever existed in his military."

"There's also a small portion of some of them that remained intact after they were destroyed." Meia took off where BC left. "I'm selecting a team at the moment to go check it out, but with the lack of techs, pilots and crew members for the moment…"

"Don't worry Meia; I'll be leading the team." Gascgone said with a smirk on her face. "I promise that nothing will go wrong."

"Now that that's settled; what about your machines?" Magno asked.

"We've fixed the male portion of the ship so that our machines can dock in there. There's no other place to put them at the moment." Meia answered.

"What about the two other machines?"

"We've placed them in there as well. We were able to make the room for them, given the size of them and all." Gascgone said with a low smirk. "You should know that Parfait has taken a major interest in the white machine with blue wings."

"BC, what was it that he called it?" Magno asked with a smile on her lips.

"I believe he said it was the ZGMF X10A Freedom." She replied, grinning slightly.

"Is there something about that machine that we should know about Captain?" Meia asked, slightly curious about her sly grin.

"That was the name of the machine that appeared over Taraaku wasn't it?" Gascgone asked sitting upright in her chair now. Magno nodded, smiling just as evilly as BC. "But that machine was destroyed by the Taraaku forces!"

"That machine was _supposedly _destroyed over Taraaku, but with it being here now, I'm starting to think that it survived, and that this is no mere copy." Magno stated, bowing her head slightly.

"But then why would it be here, of all places?" Meia asked. She remembered hearing about the machine, but never believed that it existed, let alone the rumor that it alone destroyed a third of the Taraaku military force. Such a feat was impossible, wasn't it?

"In any case, we need to figure out where we are and where we need to go for supplies at the moment." Magno went back to the real task at hand. "If our young friend is from this part, then there's a chance that his base of operation is near here. I can't see him being this far out without a place to re-fuel, re-supply, and rest without having to worry about crashing into something around here."

"Right, I'll go back to interrogating him while you check out the wreckage for anything useful." BC ordered, pointing to the remaining two women. Meia and Gascgone nodded, understanding their assigned tasks at hand before leaving.

"That boy isn't from Taraaku." Magno began, eyes scanning his card. "He reminds me of someone though. Someone I just can't place at the moment."

"I remember the last name, but nothing more." BC added, hand placed on her chin.

"It's another mystery that'll need to be solved later. Right now we need to focus on getting this ship to a secure area for repairs, and the find a place to re-supply it. Our supplies at the moment won't last us eight months on this ship." Magno ended the conversation, as her chair slowly began sliding down a ramp.

"I would hope you find something of value from him, or we might just not make it home." With that, Magno vanished into the darkness of the tunnel like ramp.

"Understood." BC slowly left the room, heading towards the Male part of the ship.

(-)

"So after they take me back into the chamber, I'll shake the ship around." Bart chirped. He was talking about escaping again, much to everyone's annoyance. "When I began shaking the ship, that should disable the cell so you can begin taking back the ship. After that…"

"Hey idiot!" Alex snapped. Bart turned around to face the Alex, who was in his full armor suit, helmet included, with a scowl on his face. "What good is a plan when you tell it to a bunch of women with guns pointed at your back?"

Bart spun around, a smiling BC with four guards greeting him with their weapons aimed at his back, or where it once was. "What was this plan of yours again?" BC joked.

"Oh nothing really, I was just telling the other guys about…" Bart stammered. 

"Remind me again, why can't I kill him?" Alex asked, ignoring Bart's rants about his way of fighting the red machines.

"He appears to be the only one capable of piloting this ship at the moment." Duerro reminded.

"Just remember, Demon, there's three of us and one of you!" Hibiki snarled, thanking the women that he was shackled at the moment. "I'm sure that the three of us could kill you."

"I don't need a weapon to kill any of you, scum." Alex shot back, eyes narrowing behind his faceplate. The rants of Bart Garsuss had finally reached Alex's ears, causing him to kick him into the glowing beams, giving him a good burn on his face. "Shut up, you damn liar!" Alex growled.

Bart screamed in pain before trying to kick Alex for his actions. This, however, was easily stopped as Alex spun around, grabbing his leg with his hands, and then jumping through his own arms so that his arms were in front of him, as his legs snapped out, hitting Bart in the face.

Bart crashed backwards, landing up against the wall, a small trickle of blood, flowing from his nose.

BC laughed slightly as Alex walked up to the cell with no care for the injuries Bart had suffered. "Pretty good, but I think I could have done better." BC joked. Alex just growled at her taunt. "I'm going to need you to come with us at the moment. These other two guards are for the one you kicked."

"What ever." Alex wasn't in the mood to put up with the men from Taraaku at the moment. His pint up rage was still evident as his fists quaked silently.

"When the other one gets up, take him to the bridge. And keep your eyes on him." BC ordered, leaving the two guards to salute her retreating form.

(-)

"What do you want to know this time?" Alex asked, moaning as he took a seat in the one of the many chairs in the conference room.

"We'll be waiting for the Captain to join us." BC told him, smiling as she took a seat near the head of the table. "But I guess we can get started, can't we?"

"So what do you wanna know?" Alex pulled his helmet off, placing it on the table.

"I'll be blunt, our supplies our cut in half and we need a place to re-supply before we start our journey home. We're hoping that you know a place where we can do so."

"Yes, I know a place, but they won't look too kindly towards the men."

"And why is that?"

"Old wounds," Alex narrowed his eyes towards the Vice Captain. She caught the message, but failed to understand its meaning.

"What exactly do you mean by "Old wounds"?" BC leaned forwards in her chair, placing her chin on her hands. "Does it have something to do with your attack on Taraaku or something else that we don't know about?"

"The attack over Taraaku?" Alex leaned forward as well, placing his chin on his hands as well.

"You don't know about the attack?" BC quirked a brow at this information. He was the pilot for the machine that appeared over the planet five years ago, and he was able to pilot just as effetely as it was back then.

"I believe there is a second side to this story, BC." Magno entered, riding her chair towards the table. A smile was placed on her face as she slid his card over the table. "Your ID card has a lot of information on it, but it alone can not tell me about the second side to the attack."

"There's only one story, but I am a little curious as to what they said. I get the feeling that it was all lies though." Alex said, leaning back into his chair.

"That's what we want to know about. Why did you do it? But if you say there's another story, then I see no reason for why we can't tell you what they reported." BC told him, eyes dimming over for only a mere second.

"The report that the Taraaku government gave out, said that you were working with Mejarru when you attacked." Alex snorted at this, momentarily interrupting BC before she continued. "The report went on to say that the two machines, the Red Demon, and the White Demon, were destroyed by two young pilots that killed themselves in order to take them down."

"Not soon after, a military supply depot was attacked. The men believed that that was the source of the machines, and was destroyed. This was the turning point in the war. The women of Mejarru didn't take to kindly to this however, and began their campaign against Taraaku."

"When the fighting began to progress for the worse, we began raiding the male ships, hoping to help out our home world, but that didn't help any." Magno took over, starting where BC left off. "When the attack on the supply depot took place, I lost a lot of good people in that confrontation. But I think I'm getting off the real subject."

"My heart goes out the lives that were extinguished because of this lie and our ideals." Alex said, bowing his head in remorse for the lost souls.

"Thank you, but your words will not bring them back to us." She replied, a single tear sliding down her wrinkled face. "Back to the subject though. After our raid on the first male ship, we uncovered the files over the attack. We found them to be… rather interesting."

"Let me guess, the truth was in the file." Alex guessed.

"Yes, but I'm here to confirm what the report said. The file had a few… loose ends in it that I find very hard to believe." Magno admitted.

"Then what is it that you want to know about?" He was getting rather inpatient at the moment.

"The file said that a convoy, filled with explosives, came to Taraaku and that's when the fighting started." BC said, eyes glistening with the black armor that Alex wore. "The report said that's where it all began."

"I can tell you right now that that's not what happened." Alex snapped. Magno and BC gave there full attention to this. Alex, realizing that he now had their attention, began to explain what truly transpired over Taraaku and, on Taraaku. The information in the files proved to lacking in a few areas, while a more abundant in other areas. The fighting was more of a lie than anything, but when Alex asked for his gear, the truth was revealed to them.

After almost three hours, Alex had finished his story about what happened. Magno and BC sat in their chairs, stunned. It was all a lie, everything the men had said was nothing more then a lie, a lie that was used to rally their forces into attacking the women.

"So your people were only there as a means for peace?" BC asked, finally breaking the silence that had waved over the room like a thick blanket.

"Yes,"

"Sometimes I wonder what those men are thinking." Magno admitted.

"Regardless, it's another matter that can be talked about later." BC interrupted. She calmly stood up; stretching her sore and tired body. "I have to go see if our _Genius Helmsmen_ is up yet."

"Hit him again will ya? That might knock some sense into his tiny brain." Alex pleaded. BC just gave a small heart filled laugh before leaving the room.

"You really don't like them do you?" Magno sat back in her chair, resting her old bones a bit.

"No, I don't think I'll ever like them. Not after what they did. I don't think I'll ever see past that." Alex admitted, lowering his gaze to the shackles. "You said that the supply was attacked right?" Magno nodded. "Do you happen to know which one it was?"

"It was the Research Facility near the planets' window, on station five."

"That means that the stuff we left them, might not have had a chance to make a difference unless they moved it before hand." Alex looked out the window to the white stars and red masses. "Where ever one lays his or her head, that place is always home to them. I've traveled far and wide, making sure that peace is maintained, and I'm often away from home for a long period of time. But I always know they're safe, no matter where I'm at, because I always sleep, knowing that I'm with them in our home."

"No matter how far away you are, you always believe that you sleep with them, huh?" Magno was slightly amused by his change in demeanor. This one was full of kindness, not like the other one that was constantly putting people down.

"Yes, ever night before I go to sleep, I look to the stars, knowing they're probably looking up at them at the same time. It's what keeps me going until the day I can see them again. I live for them. I fight for them. I would give my life for them; they are that precious to me. They are people that I care for the most."

"If you believe in such things," Magno turned to look at the stars, "then why do you constantly hate the three men from Taraaku? I mean I heard your story, but if you were taught to never kill, then would you still hate them?"

"Like I said, old wounds never truly heal properly." Alex sighed, turning from the window to look Magno in the eye. "I guess I could _try _to look past my hatred for them, but I'll still hate…" Alex and Magno went crashing to the ground as the ship jerked, taking off, "that idiot with the blond hair!"

(-)

BC stood before the cells in the men's quarters, again. The look on her face bore no surprise at the sight before her. She couldn't blame them, it was nearly a hundred, and it was slowly climbing.

Bart was without military jacket, showing off a white undershirt he wore underneath. Duerro had stripped himself of his lab coat, showing his black muscle V shirt. Hibiki was strung out on the floor, without his shirt our jacket. All three men were covered in sweet, and panting like dogs.

_Nice image. _BC sarcastically thought. "You, Blondie, with me." She motioned for Bart to follow as the bars flickered away, allowing him to exit without getting zapped.

"The demon wasn't good enough to eat, was he?" Hibiki sarcastically remarked, smiling slightly.

"We had a few questions we need to ask him, we didn't eat him… yet." BC replied, grinning as she left with Bart gulping as he followed.

(-)

"How's it going?" Meia asked Gascgone. Gascgone and Dita were the last ones out in space, and were in the process of finishing their exploratory search of the machines, along with gathering any Data on them.

"Good so far," Gascgone began, making sure to keep at least one eye on Dita, who was currently videotaping everything she saw, while going on a rant about aliens. "All things seem fine for the moment. I've already sent the other teams back with what we've collected so far. We've almost gathered the remaining information on this big bugger, and should be back in about ten minutes."

"Gascgone, look at that over there!" an enthused Dita stated, pointed to another large piece of wreckage. Gascgone silently questioned the girls' sanity before heading back to work. Why did she select Dita again?

"Just make sure you hurry. As soon as the Captain gets finished with her meeting with Alex, we're supposed to de…" Meia was thrown to the ground hard before she could finish. The last thing she heard before the radios died was Gascgone and Dita asking what was going on.

"I hate it when I'm right."

(-)

"Now, show us how this works again?" BC commanded, motioning the blue puddle-like chamber entrance with her hand. Bart gave an innocent chuckle before launching into his rambling again. This didn't go to well with BC, and she promptly shoved him into the chamber.

"I don't like listening to people ramble." She gave an innocent smile as she turned around to walk back to her station. She only got about halfway when the ship jerked, sending her, along with everyone else standing, to the hard floor.

"Bart, can't you take it easy?!" She bellowed, not very happy with the situation now.

"How do you stop this thing?!" Bart's cries of fear were once again heard on the bridge. The women all chuckled slightly as he cried for help, a manual to the ship, and a few other strange things.

"Gascgone and Dita are still out there!" Amarone reported, turning to face BC with a worried expression. BC grunted, but acknowledged the situation.

"Start dropping Markers, that'll have to do for now!" She ordered, eyes catching the sight of what looked like a drunken Ezra for a brief moment. BC thought nothing of it but only a sever case of "Whiplash" until a small thud echoed across the bridge.

"EZRA!" Celtic cried, running over to her. Ezra face was blood red, sweat pouring from every pore on her face, and her breathing was short. "She's sick!" Celtic commented, looking back at BC.

"Get her to Infirmary, now!" BC ordered, helping pick the unconscious woman up. The two guards that had helped in bringing Bart to the helm, slowly began to help move her towards the Infirmary, moving slowly incase she had other injuries that they didn't know about.

(-)

"Well… this is just great." An amused Gascgone said, eyeing the fleeing ship. She quietly shook her head at the ship that was slowly becoming nothing more then a speck in the dark surroundings of space.

"Well Dita, looks like it's just you and me for the moment." Gascgone turned back to her task at hand. "Go get your Dread so we can get out of here quickly. This thing gives me the creeps." She shivered as Dita slowly made her way to her machine.

"Mrs. Gascgo," Gascgone turned to face her partner eyes catching the eyes of Dita's, one's full of questions. "What do you think Mr. Alien is doing right now?"

"He's probably just laying in his cell with the other three men." She replied, not sounding to enthused about the conversation. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, that's all." She answered, opening the hatch to her machine. Gascgone went back to waiting for her disk to pop out of the damaged red cube.

The disk popped out a few seconds later. "Gotcha!" Gascgone cheered silently to herself. "Let's head back to the ship. We've got what we came here for." She stated, turning to face Dita. A sudden bad feeling swept over the older woman, causing her to turn around in time to see a red cub, emitting a red stream of metal that pinned her to its brethren. "DITA, GET OUT OF HERE!"

"But…"

"No, go and get out of here. Go tell the others about what happened." Her eyes caught the sight of early tears forming in Dita's eyes. "It's okay; I'm not going to die just yet okay. Now get moving."

Dita forced herself to leave, speeding towards the fleeing ship with a few Cubes behind her.

Gascgone shrugged, turning her gaze back to the strange machine before her. It was letting a few smaller drones, no bigger than a jug of milk, eat the metal away. "Handy little fellows aren't yah?" Gascgone joked. "I could use some fellows like you on the ship."

(-)

"Why exactly am I needed?" Duerro asked, looking down at the sleeping Ezra with confusion etched on his face.

"Okay, I'll get straight to the point then." BC began. "Half of the systems on this ship our still offline at the moment, and we don't have any doctors on this ship for the moment, say for you of course."

"But I know nothing of women physiology." He stated, keeping his eye on the silver haired woman.

"That's why we're going to have a few guards here as well. They'll tell you if something looks odd or if it's normal for us to have it." She commented as she walked over with the good doctor to Ezra's side.

Duerro slowly began checking Ezra over, treating her as though she was man. He checked her pulse, her temperature and the started hooking her up to a few machines to monitor her vitals.

The screen flickered to life, and then died just as fast. A guard quickly pulled her com device out, and began calling for Parfait, only to have Duerro snatch it from her and say, "Infirmary to Engineering, I'm with a patient," with a hint of worry and curiosity hidden in his voice.

"_I'm sorry but the computers are locked up again, and all I'm getting is male language." _Parfait stated.

"Well if I were there, I could read it for you." His eyes glancing up to BC.

"You can go." BC turned to face a panicking woman. "What's wrong?"

"Dita is in trouble and Gascgone has been pinned by one of those things Meia and the others fought earlier." She gasped for air.

"Damn it." she muttered under her breath.

(-)

"What do you want?" Hibiki snarled, glaring at the silver haired woman… again. Hibiki was now in his skives and covered in sweet from head to toe.

"Two of our crew members are currently missing out in space. We need you to go get them for us." She told him.

"Listen, I've already shown you a side to me, that I don't show anyone else. So don't get used to this." He moaned, putting his cloths on.

(-)

"What appears to be the problem?" Duerro asked Parfait as he walked into the engineering room.

"A man," a tech screamed, running away from the scene. Duerro shrugged it off as he walked over to Parfait, who was currently staring blankly at the little robot, Pyoro, with sad eyes.

Pyoro now looked like some sort of mid evil torture victim. His circuits were visible, he had wires poking in him in all places capably of being placed with them, and he was shocking nearby techs that dared to touch him.

"Oh, it's this little guy. I can't read this, and I can't stabilize the Pexis at the moment." She pouted, lightly tapping the white robot.

"Pyoro," was all it could manage.

Duerro walked over to the little robot and read the message. His eye scanned it for a brief moment before he turned to Parfait and said, "It's a basic algorithm, nothing more," as he looked over to Parfait for some kind of response.

"I see, but does it say anything about how to cure the Pexis?" She asked, looking at the screen as if she were reading it.

"Unfortunately no." he stated, putting his hands in his pockets.

"This thing is sick though, that much I'm sure of. Do you think you could help me out?" She asked, turning back to the large crystal mass in the center of the large chamber before them.

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer. I don't know anything about fixing such devices such as these." He motioned to the large mass that was blinking rather fast at the moment.

"But you are a Doctor, which means you can help me."

"I'm sorry, but I can only cure humans, not machines." He stated, looking out at the white mass before them.

"But this ship is a living thing too, all things that can move are living creatures though." She protested, motioning towards the large energy source.

Duerro blinked in surprise, looking back at the tiny robot, then back to the large crystal before saying, "I see your point," before re-reading the text.

(-)

"Commander, the male vanguard has launched." Celtic stated, turning to face her commander.

"Good, now just keep your eyes on that scanner. We can't afford to lose anyone else at the moment." BC ordered.

"What's going on down here?" Magno demanded, ice pack placed on top her head. Alex was behind her, helmet and all.

"We've launched the male vanguard to retrieve Gascgo and Dita, Captain." Belvedere informed her, eyeing the armor clad man.

"What about that sudden jolt?" She questioned.

"We had the helmsman go back to his post, and then it suddenly took off again." BC answered, eyeing the black haired boy.

"Just great, more good news." She moaned, placing a small fan on her station. "Anything else I should know?"

"Ah shit." Alex cursed.

"What's wrong?" BC questioned, wondering if he had been injured in the take off.

"There's an Ice Nebula directly ahead of us!" Amarone hollered.

"Damn it!" Alex yelled. "Bart, what the hell have you gotten us into?!"

"This thing won't listen to me!" He yelled back.

"I'm going out!" Alex announced, turning to the door.

"You can't," Belvedere started, stopping Alex cold in his tracks. "All exits in the hanger have been sealed off. Nothing can get in or out of the ship at the moment." Alex slammed his arm up against the wall.

"Then our hope fly's with Hibiki and Bart huh?"

"Afraid so…" Magno whispered, eyes lingering on the Nebula before them.

(-)

"The systems are all building up with immense pressure from this Pexis energy source." Parfait had spent the last few minutes explaining what was wrong with the ship to Duerro, in hopes of finding some kind of cure. Duerro had a hand placed on his chin as he sat, deep in thought.

"If we can't find a way to remove it, then the ship will explode from the buildup of energy." She finished.

"What about a Bypass?" He suddenly asked, standing up as he began looking at a display of all the major systems that were currently jammed.

"A what?" She asked, pushing her glasses back up.

"When we need to release a clot or an area that has been blocked in the body, such as a vein or major artery, sometimes its best to do a Bypass." He explained.

"So we send all the power to other parts of the ship to relieve the pressure before it causes it to explode." She stated, understanding his approach now.

The two quickly went to work, rerouting all power to other parts of the ship. Pyoro was slowly coming back online, but only for brief moments. The slight rumbling of the ship and the constant blinking crystal told them they were running out of time, forcing them to work faster.

"Ah shoot." Parfait growled.

"What is it?" Duerro didn't stop working.

"We don't have enough places to put the remaining power. There's still too much heading towards the major areas." She explained, sounding rather worried now.

"Do you know what we do when we run out of options in medical procedure?" Parfait shook her head. "We believe in the patient." He answered, turning towards the big ball of light.

"You can do it Pexis." Parfait chanted.

(-)

"Bad Aliens!" Dita cried as she was blasted again. The Cubes turned out to be rather persistent, as they followed Dita, shooting as she fled the scene.

"MR. ALEIN, HELP ME!" Dita cried out. Her Dread suddenly did a barrel roll, caused by Cube fire, causing her hands to press harder on her controls. Two tubes of energy were soon shot from her white cannon like spikes, hitting something in the distant.

"Hey," Hibiki yelled, face and voice appearing on her screen, "is that anyway to greet the person who's been sent to save you?!" he lashed out.

"Mr. Alien!" Dita chanted, flying towards him.

Hibiki was soon acting like a fish out of water as her Dread picked up speed. "Hey wait, what are you doing?!" he demanded.

A bright light engulfed the two, momentarily blinding Dita's attackers. When the light faded, the Cubes were greeted by the Blue machine from before and were quickly brushed aside from its massive size. Most just crashed into it, while a few others were smart and left it alone.

"Mr. Alien, I knew you'd come to save me!" Dita leaned back into his chest with a smile on her face.

"What ever, it's the others that are worried about you, not me." He grunted, pushing forwards on the controls.

(-)

"You know, I could use a few fellows like you." Gascgone nervously laid there, pinned to the wall, which she was currently wishing she could sink into, as the small machines slowly ate away the metal.

_Not good! _

The machines finally got to her. The large red machine slowly inched forward, its arms creeping out to grab her. She had no place to run to. She still was slightly pinned, but with one swift tug, she knew she would be all his.

She slowly closed her eyes, hoping for a miracle of some sort. A crunching sound was soon heard, forcing her to open her eyes. To her surprise, a large blue fist was the culprit, squeezing the life out of the small machine, in its comparison anyways.

"Sorry we're late!" Dita apologized.

"If I ever find out that you took your sweet time in getting here just to make a good entrance, I swear you won't live long enough to regret it." She joked, her metal stick jumping up in down with each word.

"Yeah, yeah." Hibiki moaned, releasing her from the wall.

(-)

"Bart, you need to get out of this place!" Alex yelled, hoping that something good might happen. When all else fails, screaming and praying someone or something will listen to you often work. In this case, nothing happened, other then the feckless cries that Bart screamed.

Bart was getting a crash course lesson in how the ship worked at the moment. He quickly discovered that anything the ship hit, he felt. He would feel the ship's pain, and he could only imagine that if he were to lose a wing, he might actually lose feeling in a limb on his body.

But he still didn't know how to fly it at the moment. That was something he was trying to pull off, but the yells, orders, and screams of fear from the people on the bridge, did very little to help.

"This is just great." Magno moaned, eyeing her dead fan. "Bart, do you have any control over this ship at the moment?"

"No, this thing won't respond at all!" he replied, crying out in pain as another ice chunk slammed into him, knocking his head back.

"Keep trying!" Magno ordered, looking down at her worried crew. "Don't worry, we'll be okay. Just keep your eyes on the scanners." She told them. The worried crew nodded slightly, but knew they were still in a bad position at the moment.

Celtic was the one to bring the hammer down as she yelled, "There's a giant iceberg ahead. It's on an intercept course with us!" as she turned to face the boss. Magno's eyes went wide, BC growled, Alex had no emotion on his face because his head was still hidden by the helmet, Amarone stood up at her station, eyes full of fear, while Celtic and Bart began crying.

"Bart! Do something!" Alex yelled.

"We're all going to die!" Bart yelled. He closed his eyes, waiting for his fait, knowing that death was immanent. Everyone else just watched with sad eyes as the iceberg got closer and closer.

"Bart," Alex began with no hint of worry, fear or any other kind of emotion that would portray his fear at the moment, "if we survive this. I'm going to kill you … slowly."

Everyone braced themselves for the inevitable. It was a truly scary moment for everyone on the bridge to see the object of their doom. Just when they lost all hope, it was rejuvenated as a large beam appeared in the center of it, splitting it into two separate pieces, harmlessly floating past the ship.

"It's Dita and the strange machine from before!" Amarone gasped. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, especially when the enthused Dita made herself heard.

"_Isn't this amazing Miss. Gascgo?!" _She sang.

"_Yeah, what ever, just get back to the ship please." _Gascgone pleaded.

"_I feel very tired for some reason right now." _Hibiki made himself known in a winy kind of tone that sounded rather weak.

(-)

"Alright Doc," Magno began, eyeing the four men. "What's wrong with Ezra?"

"She has a parasite." He told her, nonchalantly.

Everyone gasped, turning to Ezra with sad eyes. Ezra however, was shaking her hands in front of her face at the moment, while stuttering.

"It's not a parasite!" She finally managed to get her words back together. She cleared her throat before continuing. "You see, I found out before the raid on the male ship that I was pregnant." Everyone on the bridge let out a cry of delight. "I didn't tell you because I wanted to wait until the mission was over. Sorry."

"Wait, wait," Alex finally came from his stupor. He latched onto one thing and one thing only. "How can you be pregnant? I mean, I understand that with genetics' being the way they are, anything is possible, but the 'How' is what I wanna know."

"How can you be pregnant? I thought all children were born in factories now a days'?" Bart asked, sitting on one of the chairs.

"Well you see, we take the seed from an Ouma, and then they place it inside the Fahma so she can carry the child until it is born." Ezra explained, blushing as all the girls started bombarding her with questions.

"I guess since your world is only inhabited by women, that would mean you're able to alter any genetics' in the womb before the baby is born then, right?" Alex inquired further.

"Yes, it's the only way to make sure that no men are born." Magno answered, looking down at Alex with eyes of joy.

"I guess that would make sense, since I was genetically altered to make me more adaptable to the planet's surface then." Alex said out loud.

"What do you mean by that?" Duerro asked, eyeing the armor clad boy. "You seem to be normal in ever aspect.

"My genes were genetically altered to make me more immune to our planets' acid like water when the rain hits." Bart gave him a strange look. "On my home world, the planet is an acid like world. There's a toxic gas in the atmosphere that can easily be extracted to make antidotes for almost every kind of illness, but…"

"Should it rain, the gas turns deadly and can kill you… right?" Duerro finished.

"Yes, but our people gave up on trying to change the atmosphere a few years ago. We now live on colonies in space. But the procedure is still done on the children, incase they go down to the planets' surface."

"But I thought all children were born in factories." Hibiki protested. "I mean, that's how we've always done it." Hibiki gave out a small sigh as Magno brushed his question off.

"So, looks like a new life will be on this ship. I wonder what the future holds for us then." She mused, smiling as she watched the future of the generation talk about new life.

_I wonder how the future will turn out for them. _

"Captain." Parfait's voice and face appeared on screen. "The Pexis has stabilized and is now working at normal parameters for the time being."

"That's good to hear." She grinned.


	3. Chess Pieces

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 3 Chess Pieces

"Ma'am, we have fighters inbound on us!" Amarone alerted her captain.

"Meia, we've got incoming!" BC barked.

"Rodger; we'll be deploying in a few seconds." Meia replied; her face and voice appearing on screen. Just as quickly as it appeared, it was just as quickly gone.

(-)

"Alright, a fight at last!" Hibiki screamed in joy, running down the hall to the hanger as fast as he could. Alex was behind him, running at a slower pace, but he still held that run of importunacy.

"Hey, slow down!" He screamed. Hibiki just brushed off his comment by speeding up. Alex groaned inwardly. He really hated this kid the most now. For some reason, he just always had to be a show off ever since BC told him that men protected the weak. Some how, Alex had a feeling that he translated it wrong, since Hibiki told him that women were weak creatures that needed a strong man to protect them.

_He's pulled a few miracles in the last two fights, but that's about to catch up to him; that I am sure of. _Alex told himself as he stopped at the hanger doors.

The doors hissed open, just in the nick of time to watch Dita spinning around, talking about how cool _Mr. Alien _was as he took off. Naturally, Meia, Jura and Barnette were there, staring at the hanger doors with scowls on their faces.

"Is he trying to get himself killed?" Jura asked, flicking some of her long golden hair back.

"If he dies', then its one less thing for us to worry about." Barnette snarled, looking away from the enthused Dita.

"Mr. Alien won't die, because he's really strong." Dita scolded, shaking a finger at her gun totting friend. Barnette just turned her head in the other direction, just in time to see Alex walking up, helmet and all, shaking his head. "Mr. Suit, you just missed it!"

"Let me guess, the idiot went out on his own." He asked, staring out at the hanger doors.

"Yes." Meia answered, folding her arms over her chest.

"If the machines don't kill him, I sure as hell will." Alex announced. He turned to Barnette and Jura. "You wanna help?" Barnette blinked in surprise, while Jura just knocked some more hair back before answering.

"No, but thanks for the offer anyways."

"Why would you kill Mr. Alien?" Dita demanded.

"He's a danger to himself and those around him. I should just kill him quickly to make sure he doesn't suffer to greatly, I'd hate to wake the others up." Meia could almost see a smile through the helmet he wore.

"Then what do you propose we do?" Meia asked, arching a brow.

"You're the Flight Leader; put him in his place or something. You have connections I don't have. Use them, unless you got a body bag I can throw him in." He told her, walking over to Freedom.

"What are you doing?" Barnette asked, not truly caring about his answer she would receive.

"Going on standby, incase he gets in over his head and calls out for help." Meia looked up at him, a little surprised. "From what I've seen him do so far, is nothing short of a miracle, but his luck will run out soon; that, I am certain of." The chair sank down into the cockpit of his machine, the hatch sealing shut a few seconds later.

"Get to your machines and await further orders. We'll let him have his fun for the time. If he calls for help, then we'll deploy and show him that we don't need his help." Meia ordered, her eyes lingering on the legendary Freedom. "Or his…" she whispered to herself.

(-)

The bridge was silent. Despite the fighting that had just taken place, they were silent. They sat in their chairs, silently staring at the golden machine that sat out in space, Indian style, almost as if were meditating.

"Well, I'll give him credit for taking care of the fighting for us, but as for his recklessness, I don't truly know." Magno said, eyes glistening with a slight hint of worry.

"He's getting a little cocky if you ask me." Celtic stated.

"This is only his third time in a Van-Type, and he seems to think it's some kind of game if you ask me." Amarone added.

"But he did take care of the enemy for us, so that's a plus." Ezra defended. Ezra had taken a slight liking to the boy after Dita explained him to her, and that it was him that truly saved the ship from near death. In a way, she felt as though she had to defend him, but at the same time, she was just happy to see an unfamiliar face that she had to be friends with.

"But his recklessness will be his downfall if he keeps this up." BC countered, staring at Hibiki's face that appeared on screen.

"Did all you ladies see that?" He asked, smirking with a thumbs' up pose. His machine was posing too, but it was trying to show off its muscles, rather then his pose.

"Just get back inside little one, before Meia shoots you down." Magno ordered. Hibiki glared at the old woman, but did as he was told. Hibiki had enough sense to understand that this ship was his ticket home, and that if he made her mad, then he could kiss it goodbye.

(-)

Hibiki landed safely, unharmed and smiling inside his machine. He pressed the button to open the hatch, finding Meia, Dita and Alex looking up at him. Dita looked slightly worried, Alex looked… well he still had his helmet on and no visible expression could be seen, while Meia looked like she was about to shoot him or something.

"Sorry ladies, but I don't need your help today." He boasted, jumping down the metal floor with a booming smile on his face. "After all, I am the one who has to protect all you ladies from harm, right?" he pointed a finger at Meia and Dita.

"We don't need your protection," Meia snapped, her eyes narrowing on Hibiki. "We could have dealt with them just fine on our own."

"Yeah right, you need me and you know it." He stated. Dita slowly began to inch away, incase Meia snapped and shot him.

"If they say they don't need you, then why help them?" Alex asked in a tone that portrayed no aggression at the moment. "But then again, on my world, the strong always protect the weak." Meia growled at this. "I don't believe I said you were weak, now did I?" Alex asked the blue haired girl. Meia calmed down enough to be reasoned with at that information.

"These women are weak, so why shouldn't I do what I just did." Her rage was back, and more aggressive then before.

"We don't need your help." She barked.

"You need me and you know it. Just admit it. You need me and there's nothing more you can do other then run and hide under a table…" Hibiki was cut off by a slap to the face. Surprisingly, it was from Alex. Dita was worried that Alex might actually kill him at this point.

"What the hell was that for?!" Hibiki snapped.

"Don't judge others so quickly, scum." Alex spoke with a soft voice that still held no single trace of aggression which Dita found strange. "What you're doing is wrong and gets people killed in the field. If you think you can take out an unknown amount of enemies with just brawns, then you're wrong. In training, we're taught three rules. When you can understand them, come get me, and I'll let you pilot again. Got it?"

"Oh, and what were you taught, Demon?!" Hibiki growled between clenched teeth.

"Observe, Analyze, Assassinate. All three are a must know, and if you don't know them, then you are no good to anyone but death." Alex walked off, taking his helmet off. Hibiki had half a mind to just go beat the answer out of him, and the other half agreed.

_What the hell kind of rules are those! _Hibiki screamed in his head. Honestly, is his helmet on to tight? Hibiki wondered if his head had built up pressure from that damn helmet.

_Good rules, if you ask me. _Meia mussed in her head.

(-)

"Hey Old Lady," Hibiki growled. Magno looked down at the enraged Hibiki with a bored look in her eye. She honestly wasn't looking forward to this conversation. She knew exactly where it was heading, and wasn't looking to aftermath of the solution of the pilots' problem.

"Yes little one," she asked, trying her best to act as though she cared.

"Can you tell that woman with the weird eye thing to stop bugging me about saving them? And while you're at it, keep that UFO girl away from me. She's been driving me crazy with her 'Alien' talk." He ordered.

"I'll see what I can do." she moaned. She pressed a few button on her control screen, eyeing its contents carefully. "Well, I found a way to keep her from you for awhile. Head down to Registry and help out down there for the time being." Hibiki left smiling, chanting something about 'Getting his way again' while Magno and the other Bridge bunnies just watched him leave like an idiot.

Magno groaned as she slowly activated a small screen on her consol. Meia's face appeared. "Problem dealt with." Magno moaned.

"Thank you Captain." Meia said before the screen vanished.

(-)

Hibiki walked into the Registry room, smiling as he trotted into the room with no sense of worry in his step. He had no idea what they did. He had no idea on how they did it. All he cared about was that he would be rid of the woman with the eye piece and the UFO girl. That was all he truly cared about at the moment.

"Why hello there!" A slightly familiar voice boomed. Hibiki shuttered under it. He turned his head slowly to the left to see a smiling Gascgone and a few of her lackey's talking to her and handing reports of some sort to her. "So you're the new hand we're getting around here. I thought that you would be out there with the actors, but I guess the directory decided to change things up, huh?" She asked, handing back the reports to the women who handed them.

"Actors? Director?" Hibiki questioned.

"Well… you see we're the Stagehands; we're the people who work behind the scenes to aid the actors, Dread Fighters, in combat. We make sure that they have all the stuff they need to make a good show. We also make sure they come home safely." She answered. Hibiki looked at the woman questioningly before turning to leave. "You should know that you are to stay in this part of the ship until we reach our home worlds." Hibiki stopped dead in his tracks, spun around, and glared at the woman.

"And who the hell came up with this crazy idea!" He yelled. Most of the women looked at him a little surprised while a few others gave hateful glares.

"You made one of the actors' mad, and an actor that can't work alongside another actor gets demoted. You got demoted to Stagehand until you've proven yourself to be stable enough to work well with others."

"I don't understand what you're talking about. I do work well with others." He snapped back.

"Then why don't you listen to the others orders?" She got him there. Hibiki gritted his teeth as he tried to come up with an answer, but to no avail. "You're like us aren't you?" Hibiki looked up at her with stunned eyes. "I used to be the same way. I used to never take orders from others, but then I found out when you don't, and I had to do it the hard way."

"So all I need to do is prove that I can work well with others, huh?" Gascgone nodded. "Alright then, I'll show them then, and then I'll be back out there protecting all you women again."

"Yep, but you still have to prove it to me and then Meia." She said, twirling her com device around.

"Meia?"

"The woman with the eye piece."

(-)

"I wonder how he'll take to his new occupation." Meia thought out loud.

"I still think you did the wrong thing, Leader." Dita pouted. Meia turned a curious eye to the rookie of the squad. "Mr. Alien is a good alien that only wants to help us get home, nothing more."

"Dita, he's a man. He's our enemy, and as such, an enemy should not be aloud to fight beside us, not even if we're a long way from home. He needs to stay in his cell, or a place where he can be observed at all times." Meia stated. Meia had lost count of all the times she had to explain this to her, and was now at the point of just giving up.

"But he's a good alien, not like those bad aliens from before." She protested.

"Dita, Meia's right." Barnette entered into the conversation, walking into the room with Jura behind her. The conversation was being held in the Woman's Bathroom, each one taking a bath of some sort. Meia was in the Jacuzzi as usual. Jura walked over to a masseuse table. Barnette was in the shower, letting the cool water wash away her memories of the previous battle she didn't get in on. Dita was in the Jacuzzi as well, but didn't have her hair up or anything.

"But…"

"Dita, he's a man, an enemy to women, and a potential threat to us. We need to make sure that we all get home safely to warn our planet." Barnette continued.

"But what about what the Captain said?" Jura countered. Barnette could be heard cursing lightly to herself. Meia gave no visible change in expression while Dita seem to brighten up at the memory. "She did say that we were to throw away our hatred for each other and work together for a brighter future. We're the ones that know about the coming assault, so we have to survive at all costs to make sure we can warn them."

"Even so, we can do so without _their _help." Meia announced.

"By _their _help, I'm assuming you're also referring to Alex, right?" Jura asked. Meia narrowed her eyes at the very mention of his name. For some reason, his name seemed to bring back old memories that she couldn't understand. He was like an itch that you could never get to, and when you did, you often didn't like the end results.

"He seems to be totally deferent from most men, and even has found hatred in those three from Taraaku." Barnette mussed lightly.

"He's a man, and that makes him our enemy as well." Meia stated sternly. "He may be able to help us in getting around this section of space, but he's still a man, and that makes him our enemy, regardless of his position in the military."

"But he did state that he could allow us safe passage to the outskirts of his section so long as we left him alone and never questioned him in any way, what so ever." Jura added.

"But Mr. Suit has never tried to disobey an order from you too, Leader." Dita added.

Meia had to admit, he was a little odd. He was more of a mystery than what she truly wanted. It was like he knew something she didn't, and it bugged her in more ways then one. Why was he so strange?

"Then again, Mr. Suit has only been in one fight and even then he took up a stance that I've never seen an Alien use." Dita reminded them of the fight when the strange enemies appeared.

"Never the less, he's a man, and as such, must remain in his cell like the rest of his kind." Meia stated, eyes widening from a brief second. Why did his name bring back faces she did want to remember?

"Leader?" Dita questioned. Meia blinked, eyes returning to normal. "You spaced out." She noted.

"I'm fine, I was just… its nothing." She finally managed, standing up to leave. "I need to clear my head, that's all."

The group watched as their Captain walked out, clad in only a towel to cover her decency. It was a little strange to see something that could easily get under her skin or something that she would literally need to clear her head about. But then again, this was the first time in their lives they had ever been around men that weren't trying to kill them and it seemed a little strange. Plus the fact that they had to work beside them only added fuel to the burning embers that would ignite at just a mere drop.

The sounds of explosions soon caught their ears, forcing them to leave in quite a hurry. Barnette hopped out of the shower, running to the door as she got dressed. Dita did the same, but had the decency to actually stop and get dressed, rather than just run like a mad man while dressing. Jura did the same as Dita, but at a much slower pace. She stated that she always had to be beautiful or she couldn't fight right.

The group swept past Meia and Alex, who were talking about something. Rather then just wait to see what they were going to do, the three just ran past them, noticing that Meia was still clad in only a towel, and that Alex had a very serious expression on at the moment.

(-)

Meia huffed as she walked out of the bathroom, clad in only her white fluffy towel. She was dead set on getting to her room to change, then head to the hanger to fly into the quiet endless void of space, where nothing could bother her.

"You should change _before _you leave the bathroom you know?" a voice Meia didn't want to hear said.

"And what do _you _want?" She spat. She turned to find Alex leaning up against the wall, clad in his armor he always wore, but without his helmet, though his mask was still on.

"When I said "Put him in his place" and "You have connections I don't have". I didn't mean, "Stop him from piloting"." Alex stated. His sapphire eyes shined with a serious mono tone that could probably put a dead man in his place.

"You said deal with him, and I did. I took care of the problem, so why are you coming to me when I did as you asked?" She pulled her towel up slightly, making sure he couldn't see her breasts.

Alex smiled behind his mask. Even when she was raised to hate men, she still had a small blush on her face at the mere thought of him staring at her naked body. "He should still be able to pilot, but I wanted to make him understand that he needs to take orders and not be so hasty. I don't know how to deal with someone like him. I've only had to deal with people that understand these things in my life."

"I still don't see why you would come to me for help. Go ask the Captain or something." She said as she motioned for him to leave.

"If I did that, then what would be the point now? He needs to understand that he needs to follow orders, not make them on his own. If he continues these things, I'll view him as a Pawn and nothing more."

"Why a _Pawn_?" Meia inquired.

"In a game of Chess, the Pawns always go before the Knights." The sounds of explosions caught both their ears, forcing them to turn to the hallway that leads to the hanger. Not two seconds later, Dita, Barnette, and Jura all went racing down the hallway, stopping for only a micro second to look at them before bolting down the corridor. "I'll keep them busy until you arrive." Alex said, racing down the hallway.

_Pawns go before the Knights, huh? Then I guess I'll make you a pawn then. _

(-)

"Parfait, are the launchers ready?" Magno asked. Parfait's voice and face appeared on screen, with BC beside her.

"Yes, but we've run into a problem." Magno blinked slightly as she slouched down in her chair. "You see, we really don't know if they can survive the journey. We're only able to trace a certain projected path into them, but we can't take in all manners of space into it."

"Meaning…?"

"Meaning, that we can't be for certain if the messages will even make it, because they could be captured by other colonies, hit an asteroid, or just crash out on us." BC answered.

"We'll send them anyway, but I just thought you should know the risks." Parfait stated, pressing a few buttons. Not a minute later, two small dots appeared on screen. Magno sighed in relief as the two pods got out of sight range, but there moment was short lived as two large explosions took place.

"The pods have been destroyed." Celtic announced. Magno groaned as two Egg Carriers, and about twenty Cubes appeared before them.

"Enemy fighters, inbound on our position." Amarone announced.

"Meia, we've got incoming again!" BC said, alarms sounding in the background.

"We have movement in the hanger." Ezra said. A few seconds later and Alex's image appeared on screen. "It's Alex and the Freedom."

"Alex V. Switchfoot, Freedom, Let's do it!" the sound of metal grinding across the floor of the hanger raced through the bridge as they watched his machine take off, ready to fight the oncoming enemy with all its might.

"We have no movement in the hanger now!" Ezra gasped. "Meia, where are you?!"

"Pawn's before Knights." Meia's said, voice and face appearing on screen. "Let the Pawns go first, and then send in the Knights to finish up the fighting."

"Pawns before Knights?" Celtic questioned, turning to face her superiors with confusion in her eyes.

"It's a Chess saying that only pro's believed in. I never figured Meia to be one of those types." Mango told them.

"But she doesn't play Chess." BC stated, truing to the Boss with the same confused eyes. It finally dawned on her, just where she picked it up. "Alex must play Chess, and if he said anything like that to Meia, then he could very have just…"

"Hey," Gascgone's voice and face appeared on screen, with what looked like a dog pile of women in the background. "You girls got any rope or duck tape we can use at the moment?" she asked, sticking a thumb out to the large heap of women in the background.

"Yeah, why?" Celtic answered, a brow raised in curiosity.

"Seems like our new friend doesn't quite understand his role yet, and wants to go out and fight to protect us. I told him to sit down, but as you can see," she motioned the women again; "we had to dog pile him to get him to stay put. I told him that the girls can take care of it and if they can't, then Alex can."

"Meia won't let the Dread's launch at the moment. She's talking Chess terms at the moment." Amarone informed her, a small hint of amusement looming in her voice.

"Chess? I didn't know Meia plays Chess." Gascgone said, smiling slightly.

"She doesn't, but we think that Alex might have spoken to her in Chess language." Magno replied, smiling as she spoke. "But it looks like they won't be needed, will they?" She motioned to the white machine as it returned from the battlefield, unharmed and leaving nothing more then a trail of death in its wake.

"He's done already?" Gascgone asked, a little surprised at the information. Magno nodded while Ezra reported him entering the hanger. "Damn he's good." Gascgone turned to the large heap of women. "Alright girls, you can let him go." The screen went blank as the women slowly began to get off Hibiki.

(-)

The white machine with blue wings slowly walked to its assigned resting place, lying down on the ground since they didn't have the proper restraints to hold his machine so it could stand. Alex truly didn't care either way, just so long as he could pilot it, he was fine.

Alex slowly removed his helmet, making sure to keep an eye one the white Dread. He mentally cursed himself for speaking to Meia earlier, knowing full well that she might take his words out of context. He had thoughts of just shooting her machine and praying that she was inside, but knew that in doing so, he would put his life in jeopardy. No one fights harder than when they watch or hear about someone they care for dieing. It was an odd phenomenon that he could never get around. He knew that he had experienced such moments, but he just couldn't get how it truly happened or what the body did to do such a thing. He knew that it was like an on, off switch. Watching someone that was very close to you die was the on switch, while the off switch was something that didn't relate to the person in general.

A loud knock on his hatch got his attention rather quickly. He knew who was there, but choose to ignore her, hoping she would give up. No such luck however, she was quite persistent after all.

He sighed, pressing the button to send him out of his cockpit. He was greeted in a manner he knew he was truly going to hate, so long as he remained on the ship anyways. There stood Meia, ring laser pointed at his head.

"You're going back in your cell." She told him coldly.

"On what chargers?" He asked, almost playfully.

"Because you're a man, and our enemy." She replied coldly.

"And you're a woman. Nice little game we got here, don't you agree?" He joked, leaning back in his chair slightly. Meia just glared at him. "What's you favorite game?"

"I don't have a favorite game."

"What about a hobby?"

"You won't get any information from me." She barred through her teeth. Man he was really annoying today, and she had only been around him for a grand totally of about eight hours since this whole fiasco started.

"I just did." His eyes narrowed on her blue ones', causing her to narrow hers'. "Eyes… never lie." He stood up, brushing his armor pants off slightly.

"Oh, pray tell what you got from my eyes then?" She asked, sarcasm seeping from her words.

"Why should I tell you?" Alex stood up, walking towards the door. Meia followed his movement with her weapon, forcing herself to fire it. She couldn't. He knew something about something she didn't want to know, but she had to know it, even if it forced out old memories she rather not remember. She sighed, lowering her weapon as she watched Barnette follow him, weapon pointed at his head incase he tried something.

"He knows something I need to know." Meia told herself.

(-)

"Freeze and I suggest it!" Barnette pointed her weapon at Alex's skull. Alex stopped, but didn't turn around, or raise his hands to show he surrendered. "You're just as reckless as that other man."

"I think before I act, he doesn't." Alex growled, turning to face her. Their eyes locked, both burning with fire. Alex's eyes' were cold and almost lifeless, while Barnette's were cold and full of hatred. Alex's suddenly shifted to one of mischief as he said, "I wonder what your parents would say if they could see you now, Orangello," while walking off, leaving Barnette to pale considerably.

_How… how does he know my last name? _

"Hello, Acer to Barnette." A geeky voice sounded behind Barnette. Barnette sighed, being pulled away from her train of thought, turning around to see Parfait and the floating egg like robot beside her with a list of names on its face/screen.

"Oh, its just you Parfait." Barnette spoke, sounding slightly unamussed at the moment. "What 'cha doing?" She asked, motioning to the white robot.

"Oh, we're taking a list of names for the ship. We plan on naming her, since we're going to be on it for some time anyways." She replied, eyes downcast on the metal floor.

"So why are you coming to me?" Barnette knitted her eyebrows together as she looked at the smiling tech before her now.

"I wanted to get a name from you. I've already talked to Dita and the other pilots. Meia's not in the mood, and everyone else has already given me their ideas." She told her, smiling as she looked at the total of names already acquired. Barnette eyed them for a second, counting only about 200 if not more.

"You got a suggestion?"

"Na, never liked naming things this complicated. But thanks for the offer anyways. I gotta go talk to the captain for a second." Barnette answered, turning to leave. Parfait just shrugged, walking in the other direction to see who else had a suggestion.

(-)

"Who is he?" Barnette slammed her hands down on her Captains' panel. Magno blinked in surprise. Never once had Barnette sounded so mad, AND in front of everyone on the bridge to make a scene.

"Who's who?" BC asked, raising a brow in question. She had a feeling this involved Alex somehow, and wasn't in the mood to answer any questions over him at the moment.

"Alex, who is he?" She still sounded mad, and wasn't acting with her own right mind at the moment. "He knows things."

"Everyone knows things." Magno answered. Obviously, Alex had rubbed off on Magno a little, causing Barnette to grind her teeth in anger.

"He knows my last name!" She barred through her teeth. A few gasps were heard from the bridge bunnies. "He knows something about us, and it's dangerous to leave someone like him, OUT, of his cell! Why, have you allowed him to remain, OUT, of his cell?!"

Magno closed her eyes. Alex's past was his own story, and his alone. He had already made it clear that he was their ticket out of this section of space, and that he wanted to remain off the radar, so to speak.

"It's his story, and his alone." Magno started. Barnette looked up at her Captain, slightly alarmed that she was actually going to stay quite over this. "Alex has a past that ties to certain people and has asked me to keep quite so we don't have to worry about being shot down by his people. I consider this a fair exchange. Don't 'cha think?"

"That's not the point!" She roared. Everyone cringed under Barnette's rage. It was a known fact that when ever Barnette truly got angry. It was best to stay away from her till she cooled down, which normally took about three days or just two hours in her target simulator. "That point is that he knows my name, he's a man, and that he's out of his cell almost every time I turn around!"

"He's out of his cell so he doesn't order his people to shoot us in the back." BC commented.

"Like they could beat us." Barnette screeched. She took a few deep breathes, trying to regain her composure. After two attempts, she had it. "I just think that someone like him; needs to stay in a place where we can keep tabs on him. His cell is the only place we can."

"So you're willing to put our lives on the line, JUST, because he's a man?" Magno asked, raising an eyebrow as she watched Barnette's face pale. Now that she actually thought about, if Alex was as good as pilot as Meia was, and had a better machine that what she did, along with what ever his people had, could they actually win in a fight against them? "I see you've finally realized that we our taking the best offer at the moment. We're the only ones who know about the harvest, and we intend to warn our people before they get there. And we will do so, by any means necessary."

"Forgive me, Captain, I was out of line." Barnette bowed her head in apology, but her eyes still showed signs that she was still volatile at the moment. With that, she stormed off, heading for god only knows where.

Not two minutes after Barnette left, Amarone spotted something on her screen that was quite a puzzle to her. "Ma'am, there's an object… coming into view now." Amarone said, turning to face her Captain and Vice Captain. The two gave questioning looks as their screen showed a giant purple ball with large holes in it.

"Bart, go around it!" Magno ordered. "Maybe we can ovoid it, just incase it decides to wake up on us."

Bart was more then to comply. Fighting was the last thing he wanted to do. He hoped that the women hadn't caught onto the fact that he was a chicken, or as Alex and Hibiki put, a Pussy. Bart tried to remember just how Hibiki came up with the name, but figured he had probably heard Alex use it on one of the women, and thought it was funny.

_Hey, get moving!_ Magno's voice echoed into his odd chamber, where he stood completely naked. Where he could feel everything that struck the ship. Where he could move the ship, just with a mere thought.

"Yeah, yeah…I'm going." He grumbled. He could have sworn the she probably had a smile on her face, just at the mere thought of him feeling all the pain he would have to endure if this thing woke up.

He slowly moved the ship to the left, and just as he was about to move forward, the strange ball appeared. Bart felt slightly stumped. He moved in the other direction, hoping that it was just a reflex on the machines part. No such luck as the large ball appeared in front on him, mimicking his movements. Bart just glared at the strange machine, but his glare was soon replaced with one of fear as it emitted large purple spikes.

"Launch the Dreads!" He heard Magno and BC yell. He wasn't to surprised to already see Alex outside, but he was more surprised by the slight worry for the pilot. He couldn't be worrying for the demon, could he? This was the same man that had single handedly took out at least 66 of their military strength.

(-)

"Meia, I want you and your fighters to stay back an observe its movement. I need you to find a weakness on its body for me." Alex commanded, but in an asking sort of way.

"You want us to stay back and watch you kill it?" Meia asked, a brow visibly raised. She could her hear Alex growling at her choice of words. She could almost see that evil glare his blue eyes could produce. That mere thought was enough to cause her to smile.

"Just hang back and scan it for a weakness. I'd like to have some info on this bastards so that my people don't fall pray to their attacks." Alex stated, in a very calm and collected tone.

"Mr. Suit, will you be alright on your own?" Dita asked. Her innocents had Alex smiling as her cause of worry for every soul she saw. Alex didn't place her in the same category as say Magno or BC, but her innocent smile and worry for others safety had her damn near their level.

"Yes Dita, I'll be fine." Alex assured her, smiling behind his helmet. Dita couldn't see it, but she knew it was there, and returned it with her own smile. "Just hang back and scan it for a weakness for me."

With that, Alex blasted off towards the large sphere of spikes. Alex had always relied on three things: Speed, Accuracy, and Brains. This time however, he was being forced to relay on Speed and Accuracy as he left the Brains to the Dread fighters, more importantly, Meia.

The creature began spinning like a buzz saw as Alex got near it, his rifle trying to puncture it in someway. The sphere always managed to stay one step ahead of him, and was quickly getting the hang of predicting his fire patterns. Alex was quickly aware of this, and was forced into a more drastic approach to things. His twin Vulcan machineguns began blaring from the head of Freedom, hoping to force it into a position where he had some kind of an advantage. No such luck as the bullets just bounced off harmlessly.

Alex cursed himself for being read so easily. Anyone who was anyone knew how hard it was to read his movements, let alone beat him in actual combat, especially space combat.

Alex gritted his teeth, spacing out for just a mere second. The purple ball took its chance in that moment as its spikes revealed themselves to be missiles and was fired directly at Alex. Alex snapped back to reality just in the nick of time to see them. The missiles soon made contact with him, lighting the area up with a thick cloud of fire, dust and laser beams.

Dita was the one to cry his name, while a sad smile appeared on Meia's lips. She may not have truly liked him, but he was still in someway, someone she couldn't just easily throw away like that.

"Did they get him?" Dita heard Bart ask. She slowly covered her eyes, not wanting to see the damaged machine that she knew she would see.

"No Bart, they didn't get me." Alex groaned. Dita and everyone else looked up into the inferno of death, to see the Freedom, unharmed, and featuring two white cannons resting on its shoulders, while a pair of hip cannons stuck out of his hips. His rifle, and the four cannons, all were smoking slightly, causing almost everyone to look up at the white machine with stunned eyes. "And for the record, I'm not going to die here or lye down and take something like that."

Bart laughed an innocent laugh as he felt the eyes of the bridge bunnies on him. They may not have been able to see him at the moment, but he had a feeling that they were glaring at him.

"Meia, have you found anything yet?" Alex asked. The strange machine fired its purple missiles again. Alex blasted them with his weapons again, before diving into the inferno, his rifle blasting into the ball of smoke and fire. As soon as Alex was through the dust, he found another set of missiles heading his way. Alex was forced to dodge the oncoming barrage. He maneuvered the white machine between the purple missiles, twisting and twirling through them as graceful as a ballerina.

"No, nothing yet." Meia finally replied. She could hear Alex cursing as he continued to dodge the attacks while returning with a few shots from his rifle. "We need a few more minutes so we can analyze its body for any kind of a weakness."

"Forget your ideas on analyzing it!" Magno roared. "Just shoot it down!"

"Yes ma'am!" Was the reply from a very happy Barnette. With that, the dread pilots all charged into battle, following Alex's example of firing and dodging its strange missiles.

Alex proved to be more then meets the eye as his four cannons and rifle would blast every missile down that was on an intercept course with the unnamed pirate ship. The dread pilots proved to be faster than what Alex first thought. They showed him that they could do everything he could do, and since they were slightly smaller then his machine, they were able to get closer to it, and fly through its strange spikes.

(-)

Hibiki sat in Registry room, strapped to a chair with a combination of duck tape, rope, and handcuffs. Yet, despite all the restraints that bound him to the chair, he was still able to wiggle around, and scream his guts out at the video feed that broadcasted the fight.

"NO, THAT'S NOT HOW YOU FIGHT IT!" Hibiki roared, trying to get loose. His cries continued to fall into def ears as images of Alex appeared, firing his rifle at the spikes. Meia continued her tactic of firing short bursts into the hull of the enemy ship, only to watch as they bounced off it harmlessly. Dita, Barnette, and Jura were having about the same luck.

"Miss Gascgo, we have a delivery to make." One of the women stated, handing a clipboard to Gascgone. Gascgone shook her head at the very mention of her name that was always pronounced wrong by everyone but Magno.

"Alright," She took the list of goodies she had to give out. Her eyes caught the sight of Hibiki, who was still thrashing about like a fish out of water. "Hey, why don't 'cha come with me? I'll show you what we do in situations like these." She untied Hibiki.

Hibiki reluctantly decided to follow the older women, having at least some sense to understand that she was his only ticket to the outside for the time being. He was deep in thought about what she would be piloting in order to make her _Delivery _since he had never once heard of something like that from his home world. He had seen almost every machine they produced, since he had to make sure that what he made would in fact hold up against the women's deadly machines called, Dreads.

(-)

Bart howled in pain as the purple machine managed to get by the fighters, scratching its purple spikes across the hull of the ship. As soon as it stopped, it would start again, and Bart could swear that he could hear Alex laughing at his pain.

"Damn it, can't you do something about this thing, Demon?" Bart whined.

"Sorry Bart, but nothing we do, seems' to make nothing more then a scratch in the damn thing." Alex admitted. Bart screamed again as the machine raked across the hull one more time. "Bart, you need to leave this area immediately. I can't guaranty the ships safety at this point."

"I would if I could and I think you know that!" He yelled back.

"Bart, if Alex thinks that we need to leave this area to make sure we don't die, then I suggest we do so." Magno said, hoping he'd catch the meaning behind her words.

"Right then, let's get out of here."

"The Delivery Craft has left the hanger, Ma'am." Amarone reported.

(-)

"Alright girls, let's make this quick and easy." Gascgone announced, latching on to Meia, Barnette, Dita, and Jura's Dread's. Alex was playing defense just incase the machine decided to turn around and smack her around a bit.

Unfortunately, it decided to turn around, causing Alex to curse loudly. The purple ball of death went whizzing by as it smashed into the silver egg like carrier of the Delivery Craft. Surprisingly, the craft was able to take the large beating it was receiving at the moment. Although Alex was able to stop most of the attacks, the one's that did get through, were probably the worst ones he did, though he did get to hear Hibiki scream his lungs out in fear.

"There, re-supplying complete." Gascgone said triumphantly.

"I'm so full." Dita said, smiling as her machine was once again, battle ready. Alex was simply relived from fighting for the moment, since his weapons had been overused and were slowly starting to melt.

"Alex, how long will it take for your weapons to cool down?" Meia asked, firing another salvo of missiles at the monster before her.

"At least another thirty seconds." He answered. "I'm sorry about this, Meia. I didn't think it would take this long. I'll recalibrate my weapons if we survive this ordeal."

"Don't worry about it too much, you've done your fare share of the fighting, and played as the test dummy for observation." Barnette replied.

"Nice to know you only view me as a test dummy, rather then a damn pawn." Alex growled, pushing on his throttles to send him back into the fray of things again.

"Glad to make you feel needed." She chirped. Alex growled slightly to himself as her machine flew beside him.

(-)

Hibiki was confused, but not over what he had just seen and heard. He was confused that she brought six packs of supplies, yet she only used five. He had enough sense to understand that five didn't go into six evenly, and was staring at the last pack.

"Hey, you only used five, you still have one left." Hibiki finally blurted. Gascgone just smiled, causing Hibiki to wonder if she did this on purpose, or just to see how smart he was. Either way; it was there and it was bugging him.

"Hey you're right." She finally spoke. "Well, we did bring it all the way out here, and the ship is quite a ways away at the moment. So let's use it, shall we?" She had a mischievous grin on her face as she opened up a door in the back that leads to the crate. Hibiki ran through the door, knowing full well what might be in there.

_Let's see if you're a Stagehand… or an Actor. _

(-)

"Damn it!" Barnette cursed, spinning to avoid the large spikes of death. Jura was beside her at the moment, and trying to do some of the things Alex and Meia were doing. Meia had already managed to get use to shooting the spikes down when they came at her, leaving Alex out of the job on defending her, unless she missed a few or something.

"Meia, we need a new strategy." Jura stated.

"I can see that, but we can't do anything to this thing." She informed her blond haired friend as she pelted a few more missiles down. Alex shot down the rest with his rifle, giving Meia a clear shot at its hull again.

Dita had been the one to point out that its missile/spikes would regenerate every five seconds after being fired, so that at least gave them some kind of an idea on how to attack it, the only probable was getting around all the missiles, since when it fired them, it made damn sure that nothing was behind the attack.

Meia attempts however, only caused the monstrosity to become angry as it reloaded its weapons and fired again. Meia dodged every single one of them, while the combination of Dita and Alex managed to shoot down the remaining spikes in the area. Barnette and Jura were blasting any that got by them, which was very few.

"Damn it, this isn't working!" Alex yelled as the purple ball released more missiles. Alex flipped his cannons out, blasting every single one with precision. The darkness of space was lit up with the arrays of lights of red, blue, and yellow.

"Alright, time for some action!" Hibiki cried over the net. Everyone turned to see the golden machine standing inside one of the crates on the bottom of Gascgone Delivery Craft.

Alex smiled behind his helmet, watching as the golden machine took off from its resting place. Its thrusters were blaring as he forced his machine to catch up with the other pilots. Alex was by his side, much to his annoyance, but Alex was an 'Actor' like Gascgone said, and so he had to listen to his ideas too now.

"Hibiki, we need to get behind it. Do you think you can do it?" Alex said, putting his rifle on his back torso. Hibiki stared at him for a minute, wondering why he would put up his long range weapon before it finally hit him on what he was about to pull out.

"I think I can, but we still have to get by the purple missiles." He replied. _I was right. He is about to pull out the glowing sword. _Hibiki thought as he watched the Freedom pull out a small white stick that ignited into a long glowing sword.

"I trust you know what this can do."

"How could I forget?"

Alex just sighed, knowing where this might lead to, but was happy that the enemy in front of them was more important than the past at the moment. The purple spiked ball once again let loose its missiles, aiming to destroy at least one of the humanoid mech pilots. Alex was able to dodge most of them, but Hibiki, being the less experienced pilot of the two, got hit by one, killing his movement speed.

"Damn it!" Hibiki cursed as he tried to remove the large spike in his back. Alex was by his side in a second to help remove it.

"Hold still you…"

"Mr. Alien, let's combine!" Dita interrupted Alex as she flew towards them. Alex raised a brow slightly at her words and her cheerful manner that she always had. Dita was so into combining with her Alien that she failed to notice that large ship had released its spikes again.

"Dita, watch out!" Alex and Jura cried. Dita's Dread took a direct hit to its left thruster, sending her into a barrel roll that sent her off course and into Freedoms' metal arms. "Dita, kill your engines so I can pull this thing out without sending you flying into someone else." Alex commanded. Dita was more than happy to listen to him, and killed her engines so he could safely remove the purple spike.

"_Alex, can you save some of those?" _Parfait asked over the net. _"We might be able to use them to send the pods to our home worlds without having them get destroyed." _

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." Alex replied, pulling the spike free from Dita's machine. Both Dita and Alex both saw a flash of light from the corner of their eyes, wondering what it could be, before a loud cry of, "Meia" echoed through the net.

"What the hell just happened?" Alex asked, turning his machine around and grabbing his rifle. The light faded away just as quickly as it appeared, leaving only a strange white machine behind, armed with two legs with claws and a dragon or phoenix head in its wake.

"No fair, Mr. Alien is to only combine with me." Dita pouted, looking at the new machine with sad eyes.

_Could that idiot have combined with her? If so, this could be either really funny or really bad. Either way, I wish I had a camera for this. _Alex thought, lowering his weapon.

(-)

Hibiki groaned inside his head, not truly aware of what happened. He placed a hand to his head, rubbing it as he sat upright. As soon as he was fully up, he felt two soft round orbs land on his back. His head snapped backwards, finding a not so pleased Meia behind him.

"What are you doing in my machine?!" Hibiki growled.

Meia shoved him as far away as she could with her hand while saying, "Me, you're in my machine. You get out!" while she continued to try and push him out of her way. The next thing they knew, their new machine was sent into a plate spin from the missile fire from the odd machine. "I'll take care of that thing; you just sit there and watch."

"Yeah right, I'll kill it, and you can sit back and watch." Hibiki replied, grabbing the two green orbs and pushing on them. Meia slammed her foot down on the peddles; sending the new combination, flying towards the enemy at speeds they could only dream of.

"That acceleration is amazing!" Barnette gasped, eyeing the new combination from a safe distance from the battlefield.

"So fast, it could rival the Freedom's speed." Alex added, also watching from a safe distance.

Hibiki maneuvered the combination through the new salvo of purple spikes, never once taking any damage. Meia continued to push harder on the peddles, reaching new speeds with each inch she pressed it down.

In a flash of light, the combination vanished from view, only to reappear behind the machine. "This is exactly…"

"What I've been waiting for." Hibiki finished Meia's thoughts as the new combination became a speeding bullet, slamming through the purple ball before it could regenerate its array of weapons. They reappeared beside Dita and Alex. Its head snapped up, along with its wings, while its claws opened up just in time to give them a cool look when the strange machine exploded into nothing.

"Well… that's new." Alex stated, turning around with the purple spike in hand. Dita gave a small huff as she followed Alex and the other Dread pilots to the ship.

(-)

"So the pods launched without any problems this time?" Alex asked, moving a black Knight to take a white Bishop.

"Yeah." Meia replied. She scrunched up her face as she moved another piece that Alex took with a Pawn.

Meia had decided to play Alex in Chess, hoping that it wouldn't be that hard of a game to learn. Unfortunately, it was a rather hard game to learn, and Alex wasn't helping any.

"I still don't get why you never learned how to play a game like this?" Alex mussed, moving a Pawn to take her Knight. "I mean, I understand that we come from different worlds, but I was taught this in order to learn how to think ahead." Meia took one of his Pawns with her Queen.

"I never once worked for the military like you did." She took another one of his Pawns with her Queen. "I still don't get why the Queen has to protect the King? Do you know why that is?"

"I truly don't have an answer for that." Alex took her Queen with his Queen. "But I believe that it works like this." Alex smiled as she took his Queen with her last Knight. "The Pawns would be the simpleminded military people that rush into battle. The Knights are the like the Generals, the people who give the Pawns their orders. The Bishops are the people that the King and or Queen would go to for advice, they also were like Preachers." Alex motioned the Bishop with a newly taken Pawn. "The Queen, oddly enough, is the person who protects the King. And the King protects his Castle."

"And you were taught this for what reason?" Meia took another Pawn with her Knight.

"The Pawns would be the normal Dread pilots. The Knights would be people like me, Jura, Dita, and Barnette. The Bishop would be the Bridge Bunnies in my eyes." Alex moved his final Knight into Check with her King.

"And who would the Queen and King be?" Meia began scanning for a way to save her King.

"The Queen would be you, and the King would be the Captain." Alex stood up, walking towards that door, only to pause for a moment. "But then again, I guess that the King would be Bart since he moves the Castle then, wouldn't he?" He walked out.

Meia stared at the battlefield. "Yeah, I guess so." She knocked over her King, admitting defeat.


	4. Got a Cold

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 4 Got a Cold

"This planet has no life signs that we can see for the moment." BC stated, motioning the desert planet on the screen. "What we can see so far, is a few supply buildings that we believe may still hold some supplies. I've already asked for a team to go check it out, but with the planets weather system being the way it is right now, we can't send a team."

Magno, Gascgone, BC and Alex were all in the Conference Room to talk about the planet. Seeing as Alex knew this part of system quite well, he was privy to these meeting, and anything to do with supplies fell under Gascgone's category.

"We're hoping that the storm will pass soon so we can send a team to investigate it." BC turned to Alex. "Is there anything we need to know about this planet?"

"This planet has no real name, other then the military name given to it. We've called it, X08999, because we've always used it as a Weapons Testing planet." Alex stood up. "Those buildings were there when I first saw this world, so whether or not those are weapons supply buildings or just food supply buildings, I'm not sure. But one thing I do know is that they've been there for at least fifty years, meaning that any food in there is going to be rotten."

"What kind of weapons could we possibly find down there?" Gascgone asked, sitting up in her chair slightly.

"You'd probably find missiles or mech parts. I wouldn't be surprised if you found a few EMP Missiles down there either." He answered.

"EMP Missiles?" BC questioned.

"Electro Magnetic Pulse Missiles or EMP Missiles, are designed to knock out all electronic devises on a ship or anything that use electricity. They were designed a few years ago, and are normally used on large fleets. We have no real record on the blast radius since they can't be tracked, and anything within the radius…"

"Loses power." Magno finished.

"Exactly, and if you do find some, I'd make damn sure they don't go off. We know that the affects can last anywhere from two to three hours if you're at point blank range." Alex noted. "Anything else that's on that world, I couldn't tell you."

"What about a security system?" Magno questioned. "I'm not sending a team down there if there is one."

"As far as my memory goes on this world, there's not one, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did install one just recently." BC gave him a questioning look. "Since we've lost five Space Stations in this area, I wouldn't be too surprised if they did. If they did put one down there, I wouldn't know about. I've been sending emails to my Commander on the station you're taking me to, but I haven't received a reply from then since yesterday."

"Meaning it could very well be under attack or has been attacked." Gascgone theorized.

"If that's happened, then chances are that you'll have me along for some time, which could be a good thing. But I really don't want to start thinking about that at the moment." Alex coughed slightly, making sure to get everyone back on to the real subject at hand. "This world also has a few tanks that we intended to use to give the planet a chance for water and planet life." He pressed a few buttons to bring up a few silo tanks. "I know that a few of them hold Co2 while the rest are Water. I don't know how old it is, but water is water and I'm sure that Parfait could think of something to filter it just incase."

"So don't expect much from this world?" Gascgone asked. Alex nodded. "Alright then, I'll go see who the team is, and then we'll start getting things ready for departure."

"When you find out who the team is, bring them to me so I can tell them about the planet and where to search for supplies." Alex ordered. "I'll be on the bridge looking for any signs of a security system."

"I believe that Hibiki is one of them since he already knows how to pilot a Van-type, and I'm sure Meia will be going to make sure that nothing goes wrong. As for the rest, I'm not to sure." Magno announced.

"Just send them to me so I can cover any questions they have okay?" The three women nodded as they left the Conference Room.

(-)

"So they named this ship the 'Nirvana' eh?" Alex asked Ezra as he continued to search for any security systems.

"Yes, and Dita has Hibiki eating our food." She exclaimed. "His manners are a little… uh barbaric if you ask me though." Ezra smiled innocently as she helped him search. Ezra and Alex got along quite well, and since the rest of the Bridge Bunnies seemed to like him, Alex often stayed on the bridge most of the time, unless he went to the Bio Garden for some rest.

"I see, well that's probably because he's never had good cooking before. I know that every single time I get some time off and get to see my mother, I often do the same thing." Alex made a disgusting face. "Military food is often not as good as home cooked food. They can everything and make sure that it lasts really long. Not to mention they have to make sure it's cheap, but full of grams to make us last longer."

"What do you mean by that?" Amarone asked, sipping some of her water as she spoke.

"The military likes its soldiers to be ready for anything, so that means, less food, but more energy because they put more needed vitamins in it. Like one ration bar wouldn't fill a person up, but it gives you enough energy to last for half a day."

"Why wouldn't it fill you up if its effects last that long?" Celtic asked. Celtic had decided to wear a large Bear outfit, believing it would protect her from all the 'Male Germs' or something along those lines.

"Good question, but all I know is that I once had a teammate that ate until he was full, and he ended up being awake for three weeks solid, AND had a bad case of insomnia. He was sick for a month, and nearly went insane from being sleep deprived."

"You don't eat those do you?" Ezra asked. Alex rolled his eyes, pulling out the said ration bar. "How many of those have you eaten?"

"Not enough, I can tell you that for sure. These things taste like cardboard, and since I didn't want you women on my ass about eating your food, I figured keeping quiet was the best idea." He put the ration bar away.

"How can you eat something like that?" Amarone asked with a distasteful look on her face.

"You get use to them, trust me." Alex laughed, continuing his typing as he spoke.

"We wouldn't mind if you ate some of our food, just not all of it." Ezra said, smiling as she rubbed her stomach. "I wonder what the others are doing at the moment?"

"I'm sure they're doing what ever it is you ladies do." Alex said, eyes darting back and forth on his computer terminal. "Man, this storm is interfering too much. I can't get a confirmed lock on anything down there. If there is a security system in place, then I can't find it with that damn storm."

"Doesn't matter anyways, the team's ready for you." BC announced, motioning for him to follow.

(-)

Alex and BC walked into the Conference Room where Hibiki was looking rather tired, Dita was doing her usual thing with Hibiki, talking about Aliens or just staring at him with a heartthrob look in her eye. Meia was standing in the back, faraway from everyone else at the moment, while Jura and Barnette were sitting in a few of the chairs talking about something.

"Nice to see I was right about two things." Alex grumbled, walking into the room. "Okay, I trust you all know why you're here?"

"No, we were just told to come here after the team was selected." Jura replied, painting her fingernails. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to tell you what to do when one of the EMP Missiles, if you find any, goes off." Alex stated, smiling behind his mask. Jura paled considerably while everyone else seemed to not be paying any attention. "Alright, please take a seat, so I can get this meeting underway." With that, the team slowly sat down.

"Why exactly are we here again?" Hibiki moaned.

"I'm here to teach you on how to die with what little dignity you have." Alex joked. This earned him a few laughs from Barnette and Jura. Dita didn't find it to funny while Meia just had not reaction to it.

"I'm actually here to tell you about what you might find, how to disarm an EMP Missile, if you find any that is, and also where to look for some supplies." Alex said, bringing up a picture of the planets' surface. "Okay, this worlds' terrain is sandy, so expect lots of falling for those of you who suck at piloting a Van-type. These dunes are unstable, meaning you will fall if not careful. This Silo's might contain some water, while a few others will contain Co2."

"Question." Dita announced, raising her hand like a school girl. Alex nodded, waiting for her question. "Why is this world so sandy?"

"There's no water on the planet, that's why." Alex said, raising a brow at the young pilot. He shook his head to clear his thoughts about this team as he shifted back to the screen. "This area here is a large field of mines that never detonated, and of course when I say 'Mines' I really mean, Nuclear Bombs that never went off, EMP Missiles that were dropped because they're was an idiot piloting the transport. So stay away from this area."

"What's an EMP Missile?" Jura asked.

"It's a missile that shuts down any and all electronic devises, meaning your Van-types. I suggest you stay away from them, since I don't have enough time to explain how to disarm them for transport. These area over here however," Alex motioned a large structure on the screen, "Should be filled with mech parts, inactivated warheads, and anything else that is built to go boom."

"So search that area, and stay away from the other area?" Hibiki questioned. Alex nodded. "That doesn't sound too hard."

"Yes, well, let's keeping hoping for that." Alex mocked, turning back to the screen. "Most of these buildings are ready to fall, so don't get under them or around them if you can. What ever you do, do NOT leave your machine. If you exit your machine, you will die from radiation poisoning. We've used this place as a major testing facility for all kinds of weapons, so don't get out of your machine, and don't expect this to be a walk in the park."

"What kinds of weapons have been tested here?" Barnette inquired.

"Anything that can go boom has been tested here." Alex said, sounding rather annoyed. "Because of all the testing, you can bet that there will be some problems with you equipment, so expect the worst on this world."

"What kind of problems would we experience?" Meia asked, now deciding to speak.

"Expect your radars to fuzz in and out. Your Radios might go out. But other than that, I have no idea. Just be ready for anything. I'm currently looking for any signs of a security system on the planet, since with the loss of our military station in this area, there might be a chance they put one up. So be ready for that too incase I don't find it before you leave."

"So just be ready for anything?" Jura asked. Alex nodded again. "This doesn't sound too bad then!" She chimed.

_Yeah right, not even I'm stupid enough to go down there. _Alex thought. "You're dismissed."

(-)

"So the women will be using our Van-types?" Bart questioned, munching on some of his pills. Bart, Duerro and Hibiki were in the simulation room watching how the team progressed through their training. Duerro was watching the heart monitors while Hibiki and Bart watched the video feed to see how they did.

"Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing if you ask me." Hibiki stated. "I'm mean, I understand why they would be, wanting to learn how to use them, since we are about to go down to a world that would require a Van-type to pick up things, but why can't they just send the Demon and me?" Hibiki looked at the screen, watching as Dita's machine, a purple unit, was flailing around like a fish out of water.

"Yeah, why isn't that Demon going down there?" Bart inquired, munching on some more pills. "You'd think that since this is one of his worlds, he would at least consider going down there with you to make sure nothing bad happens."

"I believe he is searching for a security system on the planets' surface." Duerro said, never once taking his eyes off the monitors. "This may be his world, but if something bad were to happen down there, we'd be without a ticket out of this system. His people won't look too kindly to us, just as we don't look too kindly to him."

"Why would he need to search for one? That is one of his worlds, isn't it?" Bart asked, still munching on the same pills.

"He said he hasn't been to this world in the last four weeks. With the loss of their military station in the area, he thinks they might have put one up without letting him know since he's been gone for so long." Hibiki answered.

"Still doesn't mean he'd need to search for it. He should know where it is, if you ask me anyways." Bart huffed, swallowing his food. Bart stopped his next handful of pills before they could reach his mouth as he realized something. "Duerro, why did you say his people won't look too kindly to us? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"Bart, no one attacks without justification. Given our predicament at the time when they showed up, and that his people get along with women, wouldn't it make more sense if we did something to provoke them?" He asked. Bart gave no reply. "No one attacks without good cause, and I think we were the ones to start it, they just finished it."

"And what makes you say that?" Hibiki asked, shooting the doctor a quick glare.

"I know how our people think, and if he came five years ago, that would put him at the time when things began to turn for the worse." Duerro stated, eyeing the monitor that displayed Meia' health status at the moment.

"Meia, you need to calm down. You're heart rate is to high right…" Duerro began, speaking into the microphone.

"I'm fine!" She growled. "I don't need your help!" Duerro narrowed his visible eye.

"Hibiki, watch the others for a moment. I need to go talk to Alex about the mission." Duerro left a stunned Hibiki and Bart behind, both giving him a single shrug as they kept an eye on the monitors.

(-)

"Alex, I need to speak with you." Alex turned to Duerro's request, eyes full of confusion. Duerro understood that he was the only one of the three men to call Alex by his name, earning him at least some respect from the Freedom pilot. "It's about the team."

Alex now had his full attention on the single eyed doctor. "What's the problem?"

"Meia may not be fit to carry out this mission. Her vitals will not stay within the preferred diameters for one of our pilots. The others seem to be doing fine, so they're okay. Meia is the only one, and since you told me to keep you informed on them in training…"

"I'll go talk to here. I don't want someone coming back in a body bag. I don't need Magno or BC at my throat at the moment." Alex groaned, standing up from his station on the bridge. "Where is she?"

"She's still in the simulator. I have Hibiki and Bart watching them at the moment." Both men turned to leave, leaving the bridge bunnies with large questions in their minds.

(-)

"So you finally decided to grace us with your presences, huh, Demon?" Bart sneered.

"Bart, I hear they need you on the bridge. I think they said they need another good lie to listen to." Alex joked walking over to the com. Bart just shook his head, not really wanting to start something with Alex at the moment. "Meia, its Alex, are you okay in there?"

"I'm fine; I don't need your help." She gasped. Alex scanned over the monitors, giving a low whistle at them. "Computers can lie."

"Meia, you're right, but in this kind of a situation, it's best not to take chances. I need to speak with you for a moment. So could you please…"

"I'm fine!" She growled, interrupting him. Alex shook his head again, this time ending up staring into the eyes of Duerro.

"Meia, if you don't come out, I'm going to have to pull you from the mission." Alex finally announced.

"You mean you'd pull her?!" Hibiki gasped. Alex shot him a dirty look before turning back to the monitor. "Then that means you'll come down with us right?"

"Hibiki, shut up!" Alex growled, turning back to the monitors. "Meia, I really don't want to do that, but if you continue to ignore me, then I'll have no choice but to go to the Captain and explain the situation. So can we skip that part please?"

"I'm… … fine."

"Meia, your lips say 'Yes' but your vitals say, 'No'." Alex gave her a warning tone as he narrowed his eyes on the monitor displaying her face. Meia was sweating badly, and her breathing was erratic.

"I'm… fine."

Alex spun around, heading straight for the door. "Doc, get a few Techs on standby, and get Paiway down her with some sedative. If she doesn't want to come out on her own, then I'm going to rip her out. Get everyone out of the simulators, right now." The door hissed closed as Alex disappeared.

"You think he'll kill her?" Bart asked, turning to face Hibiki as Duerro began calling the other pilots to leave the area. Dita asked him a few questions, but with Barnette's help, left before Alex walked in.

"I don't think he would. He's knows that if he did something like that, then he'd be without a way home and he wants to get home just as badly as we do." Duerro stated, his single eye watching as Alex stormed into the room bellow them. "I think we should leave this to him." Duerro stated, leaving the room with his two friends behind him.

(-)

Alex punched the door to Meia's simulator, letting her know he was outside. "Meia, you got five seconds to come out before I rip the door down!" Meia knew Alex was pissed at the moment. She could hear him counting down from five outside her door. She pressed the button to release the hatch, and was instantly grabbed by him.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Meia growled, breaking free of his grasp. "I was doing just find until you dragged me from the simulation!" She shoved him away.

Alex grabbed hold of her hand, pulling to him before spinning with her to slam her into the wall. Alex pinned both arms to the wall, making sure she couldn't move. Alex then pinned her foot with one of his own while her final leg was given movement. Meia winced from the pressure placed on her wrists. 

"What the hell's wrong with me?! What the hell's wrong with you?!" Alex snapped, throwing her towards the simulator. "Meia, you don't know what I'm trying to do, do you?" Alex asked; his tone back to his normal tone.

"Like I care!" She snapped, throwing a punch at him. Alex caught it effortlessly while throwing her attack to the side. Meia hit the floor, but rolled with her own weight, making sure she come up on her feet. "I don't care what you're trying to teach me!" She threw a kick towards his gut, hoping hit him. Alex grabbed her foot, stopping the attack cold, while his leg snapped out to knock her other leg, knocking her to the ground.

"Meia, I'm trying to make sure you survive." Alex released her leg, letting it fall to the ground on its own. Meia oddly enough didn't stop it from falling. "I know you hate my guts, and I know you hate men, but I need you stay alive."

"Why, why do this for me?" Meia asked, trying not to cry. How long had it been since she cried? She couldn't remember the last time she did. It seemed so long ago that it didn't matter to her anymore.

"I'm trying to repay a debt I owe. I never thought I'd get a chance to see the people whose hearts were as white as snow. But I have, and know I must repay the debt I owe, for the mistake my people made." Alex knelt down beside her, a sad smile on his face.

Meia slowly sat up, eyes full of confusion as she watched Alex sit down beside her. Her mind was drawing a blank as to why he would be saying such things. She truly was at a loss for words.

"Meia, I hope that things get better for you in the future, because I want you to survive to see the world your mother wanted you to see. If not for her, then at least do so for me. I have done things, things that I myself am ashamed of, and I want you to see the world she dreamed of. Because I believe it's the only way for me to repay that debt." Alex smiled behind his mask, seeing that look that only a woman could give him. It reminded him of someone he wanted to forget, but could not. She was the reason that linked him to a past he wanted erased, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"What debt do you owe?" Meia snapped Alex back to reality. Alex gave a look of surprise, only adding more fuel to her already burning mind of questions. She knew that look to well. She knew now, that he knew something about the past that she was connected to, and she needed to know it.

"I'm sorry Meia, but I can't tell you." Meia bit her lower lip out of frustration. "When I told Magno my story, she gave me an option. If I told one person on this ship the truth behind the Taraaku incident and the Mejarru incident that would soon follow, I would have to tell everyone on this ship."

"What involvement?" Alex's head was jerked up to her blue eyes. She was wide eyed at his words. He did know something, and she had to find out. "What involvement did you have on Mejarru?"

"Meia…" his voice was almost a whisper as he stood up. "I… I can't tell you. If I told you… I'd have to tell everyone. The truth was kept from everyone, that's all I can say. I've already told you too much, and if I told you anymore… I'd have to tell them."

"What's so important about this secret? What happened?!" Meia grabbed him by his chest plate, dragging him back down to her level. "Every time I hear your name, I see people I don't want to remember. I see memories I've pushed away. Why is it your name that brings these out of me?!"

"Meia…"

"Why? Why you? Why you of all people? Why is it that a man has the answers to questions that I've searched for?"

"Because, life is a cruel game that no one can win. What you search for will be in vain. I searched for the same answers as you are now, and I turned up nothing but bad memories in the end." Alex stood up, releasing himself from her grasp. "Don't walk the same path I choose, Meia. Your mother wouldn't want you being like that."

Alex turned to leave, but Meia grabbed his wrist, refusing to let go. "How do you know my mother?" Her eyes will full of fear.

"Alexander, remember the name." Alex released her grip, turning once more to the confused Flight Captain. He scolded himself as he walked through the door. Once the door hissed closed, he punched the wall in front of him, making a small dent in it.

_How could I have been that stupid? Why for her? Were so worthless to me that I couldn't do that for you? Rei…_

Alex stormed off, passing Paiway and Parfait along with a few Techs on the way. The women gave him questioning looks, but shrugged it off. In reality, Parfait had some idea as to what might have been wrong with the armor clad man, but decided to follow her orders from the good doctor.

"Meia!" Paiway gasped, running to her side. "What happened to you?" The little nurse began looking her over for any cuts or bruises. Parfait and the others walked in, eyes lingering on the large dent in the hatch of the simulator.

_Duerro was right, his suit does give him advanced strength. _

"He knows something about us." Meia's words ripped Parfait from her thoughts. "He knows something about what happened on Mejarru. He knows my mother. He has to be the missing link."

"Meia…" Paiway crocked, helping her to her feet. Paiway was at a loss. She knew what happened to Meia's family, along with everyone else on the ship. That was the reason she become so strong. It was because she forced herself to work like this, and having these memories wasn't doing any good at the moment. "Meia, let's go get you in the Jacuzzi, that'll solve all these bad problems." Paiway announced, dragging the half confused Flight Leader behind her.

(-)

"Alex, I figured you might be here." Magno said, walking up to him. Alex was sitting under one of the large trees in the Bio Garden, staring at the stars with a faraway look in his eye. "I've seen that look, a many times, but not once have I ever seen it in a mans' eyes. What happened?"

"Meia… I left her a clue to her past." He stated, a single tear sliding down his cheek. "I can't keep living a lie, Magno; I can't do this on my own anymore. I've tried to forget her, but seeing you again, seeing everyone that I tried to forget… it brings her back to me."

"The past is never something that truly leaves us; it just waits for a chance to be pulled out and then waits to be read. Like an old book from a long time ago." Magno took a seat next to him. "Meia and you both have the same past. You were raised by people who were famous, just like she was. She lost both her parents, while you only lost your father. You both drive others away, believing that you become stronger if you don't have emotions or people you feel connected to."

"But it's those bonds that make us stronger. I had to learn that the hard way, and that's why I can't keep this up on my own anymore. I need to see her one last time, but I'll never get that chance again. I'll never get to see her smiling face, so long as I remain the way I am."

"You will see her again. For that, I am certain of." Magno looked up at the stars, smiling at some of the memories she had doing this. "I can't remember that last time I looked at them with a man by my side. When was the last time you looked at them with a woman by your side?"

"Four years ago, when I tried to get over her." Alex laughed. "I can't believe I actually fell in love with that woman. And all she wanted was to be seen on the tube."

"How many women have you dated since you last saw her?" Magno raised a brow as Alex gave her a suspicious look. "You don't really think that I'd not know about the old days, do you?"

"No, but to answer your question, about three. My sister never was one to let me settle down, and mother was just the same. They always told to wait until I was older, at least until I was about twenty five or around the age of thirty."

"Well then, it looks like you had better find someone within the next nine years… if my math is right of course." Magno joked, smiling as Alex chuckled.

"My birthday isn't for another few months Magno, I think you know that." Alex motioned her pocket with his finger. Magno chuckled slightly. "I may not have been as smart as I was back then, but I still have the eyes of hawk."

"That's good to hear." Magno slowly stood up, forcing her weight onto her cane. "I think its about to clear up."

"If anything happens, I'll go down to help them." Alex stood up as BC announced that the planet was clear for the team to head down. "I just hope that this has left Meia more than confused for the moment. That was the only tactic in getting her to stay here with telling her or sedating her."

"You left a small clue, and things like that often bug her enough that she won't leave until it's figured out. I've only seen this once, and that was around the time when she joined up with me and I mentioned your name to Gascgone."

"Then let's hope it works out." Alex said, watching as the team departed, minus one Van-type. "How long do you think it'll delay her?"

"Until she figures it out." Magno walked off, heading towards the bridge with Alex tailing her.

(-)

"The team has begun to enter the atmosphere." Amarone announced.

"Good, make sure you keep an eye on them." BC commanded, staring at the streaking flames of the Van-types as they began entering the atmosphere of the sand planet. "How are things on your end, Doc?"

"They're vitals are within the preferred range. But since they're entering the atmosphere, there's a good chance it could spike soon." Duerro replied. Duerro was on the bridge to watch the teams' vitals. If one began to rise to fast, he would inform Alex, and he would launch to aid them in getting back to the ship.

"How long until we have radio contact again?" Magno asked. Magno was worried about this mission as well. In truth, she didn't want to send a team down to the planet, but given the situation they were in, she knew that it had to be done.

"Thirty three seconds, Ma'am. We'll start calling them in twenty incase they got down faster then we projected." Belvedere announced. Magno nodded at her words, her eyes lingering on the remains of the teams' smoke from the entry.

"Alex is on standby and ready to launch at a moments notice." Ezra stated, smiling as Alex's image appeared on screen. "Alex, we're about to start radioing the team, so just sit tight."

"Don't worry Ezra, I have patience in this kind of manner." Alex said, smiling behind his helmet. "How's the condition of the weather on the planet right now? Do we know when the next storm will hit?"

"The next storm will hit within thirty minutes, so it looks like they won't have enough time to load up much." BC replied. "We told them that we needed the water the most."

"Good idea, I'd hate for the women to not be able to take a shower." Alex joked. Magno and Ezra were the only ones' to laugh at his attempt of a joke. The others, besides BC, just glared at him. Alex realized his mistake and decided to state its true purpose, since he didn't want a women's wrath at the moment. "It was only a joke to ease the tension at the moment. Gezz, you ladies need to laugh every now and then."

"It wasn't a funny joke though." Celtic stated, glaring at him through her costume.

"Like you have anything to worry about, you're the one with the big bear costume that can keep all, your stink in." Alex replied, chuckling a bit. Celtic just gave a low growl like a bear before turning her head to the opposite direction to find Mango laughing to herself.

"It's not very funny."

"Alex my boy, you sure do have a way with women, don't 'cha?" Magno asked, still laughing.

"What can I say, I get it from mom." Alex raised his hands in defeat.

"We've established contact with the team." Amarone announce. "They're fine and are beginning their search for supplies. They also said to tell Alex, that they saw a large structure just on the outskirts of the city or town. They want to know if its okay to check it out." Amarone looked up at Alex for some kind of a reply.

"Did they get a clear view on it?" Alex asked, hands tensing slightly on the controls.

"They didn't." was the reply.

"Then no, I don't want them wondering around on that planet without my help. I'd feel safer if they just stuck to the plan I laid out for them."

"Okay, I'll pass the message on." Amarone stated as she started talking to Barnette, who was working as Captain for the mission at the moment.

(-)

"Alex has told us not to investigate the area." Barnette told her team. "We're to continue with the selected plan."

"But it was so big, it must hold a lot of supplies." Dita protested.

"No, we're sticking to the plan and that's final." Barnette commanded, forcing her machine to walk through the debris that littered the cityscape.

Small cars, stop signs, and other small things littered the sandy floor that they walked on. With each new step they took, another strange relic was revealed. Since the team had been devised in an odd fashion, Dita was the one to see all the 'Alien' things. Hibiki was up front, since he had more experience with a Van-type. Next in line was Jura, she was almost as good as Hibiki was, and had a much larger weapon than what he did. Jura was behind her, using a small spear as her weapon. Dita was bringing up the rear, making sure that nothing got in behind them, just incase something popped up out of no where.

"Hibiki, do you see the targets yet?" Barnette asked, sounding rather impatient.

"No, this sand makes it hard to see through, and the equipment is going on the fuzz, just like the Demon said it would." Hibiki groaned.

"Say, Hibiki, why do you call him the Demon? You know he probably wasn't the one to pilot that machine five years ago." Jura said. She could hear Hibiki grumbling something. "I doubt he was the one to pilot it, so why call him that?"

"Because he's the pilot for the machine, why else would I call him that?" He snapped. In truth, it didn't make sense to him. There was no way Alex could have been the pilot since he would have been only sixteen at the time. His abilities may rival that of the actual pilot, but that didn't mean that Alex wasn't the pilot for the machine at the time.

"Look up ahead, that's one of the Silo tanks that Alex talked about." Jura chanted. "That means that the first supply depot should be around here somewhere." Her machine quickly began scanning the area for the designated building.

"Looks like this one holds Co2, just like he said it would." Barnette mussed. "That means that the supply depot must be around here." She was soon by her friends' side, scanning the dunes for the grey building.

"Didn't he say it was to the East?" Hibiki asked, walking to another dune on the other side of the Silo. "I think I see it." Barnette groaned as Jura quickly high-tailed it to his location with the love struck teen beside her. Both were fighting over who would get to combine with him at the moment, though, Dita had enough sense to understand that a Van-type can't combine with another Van-type.

Ever since Meia's machine combined with Hibiki's, Jura had been trying everything her little mind could think of to get Hibiki to combine with her. Jura had learned a few things from a helpful source, Paiway, who had hidden agendas inside her plan to get Hibiki away from Dita, but Jura just cared about one thing. Combining with Hibiki to make the most beautiful machine every.

Barnette growled to herself. Her machine was now at the back of the line, which was now in disarray, as she scooted, herself to the team. She wasn't in that much of hurry, but her sixth sense was screaming at her at the moment. Barnette knew that she should always listen to her gut instincts, since they were normally never wrong.

A burning speck outside the corner of her eye was what it was. She watched it crash into the sands, at first wondering if it was Alex, but that thought was put out of her mind as a scream echoed through the com channels.

"Meia…"

(-)

"The team has found the supply depot." Amarone announced. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. Things had been rather tense at the moment, since they lost contact with them for a minute, which almost had Alex launching. "They're loading up the transport with the supplies at the moment." Amarone continued. "Most of it looks like ballistics and mech parts."

"That must be Armor 5. That warehouse holds most of the testing equipment for this area." Alex told them. "If they've found that warehouse, then we're doing well so far." Alex paused, taking a deep breath. "BC, how much time is left?"

"They still have twenty minutes; they're not doing to bad." She replied giving him a blank stare.

"Magno's informed me, that every time you do something that would be considered an easy mission, something goes…" Alex stopped as his head jerked to the side to see something. "What the hell was that?" He asked.

"Another Van-type has launched from the hanger." Celtic announced. Alex cursed loudly while Magno and Duerro's eyes widen. The bridge bunny's eyes widen too, but that was at the language Alex used to swear like a sailor.

"Give me her coordinates, and I'll go get her." Alex ordered. "BC, Doc, try to reach her on the com! She's in no condition to leave the ship!" 

"Her vitals are beginning to spike." Duerro announced. BC's eyes widen as she quickly began calling for her to return. "Meia, listen to me, you need to open all your view ports if you want to continue this mission. If you don't do this, Alex is going to come get you." 

"I don't need a man… to tell me… what to do." She huffed. She was happy that her movements inside the cockpit couldn't be seen, since she activated all view ports, allowing her to see outside.

"Alex, she's not coming back!" Ezra cried.

"Alex V. Switchfoot, Freedom, let's do it!" Alex roared, busting out of the hanger and towards Meia's machine that was already entering the atmosphere.

"Try notifying the team that Meia's on the way and needs to put under surveillance until I get there." Alex ordered, raising his shield so it was in front of his body while his wings spread out slightly.

"We've lost contact with Alex now, Ma'am." Belvedere stated, turning to face her Captain. "Should we abort the mission or…"

"No, but let the others know about Meia. They need to find her and get out of there. I got a bad feeling about that world now." Magno stated.

(-)

"Hibiki, go on a head, I've been told to go check something out." Barnette ordered. "Stay with the transport and make sure nothing gets it. We need that water." Barnette turned her machine to the crash sight and began running towards it.

"That was odd." Hibiki said, putting the his crate on the transport. I wonder what was so important that she'd leave me in charge." Dita's machine gave him a blank stare, if it could produce one anyways, as it shrugged it metal shoulders.

"Let's just finish loading these last few crates, and then we will head to the next site." Jura suggested. Hibiki shrugged and picked up another crate. Dita was soon back to work with Jura by her side.

"How many more crates do we have left to grab?" Hibiki growled.

"We only have three more, Mr. Alien." Dita said, trying her best to cheer him up with her cheerful manner.

"Let's just get them loaded so we can get out of here. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this place." Hibiki stated. Jura and Dita nodded, understanding just what he meant. It wasn't much longer that his sixth sense was kicking in as the sand cam alive and tried to grab him. "What the hell is that?" He screamed jumping up on top of the building. Jura and Dita did the same, eyes scanning the sand for any movement.

"Mr. Alien, what was that just now?" Dita asked fearfully.

"I don't know, but I say we need to get the hell out of here!" He told them, jumping down to the transport. "Come on, we'll pick up Barnette on the way."

"Mr. Alien, get back up here!" Dita commanded, pointing to another hand made of sand. Hibiki activated his thrusters, propelling him high into the air. The next thing he knew, he was electrocuted from red beams that appeared in the sky.

Hibiki came crashing down on the building, growling in pain as he slowly stood up. Dita and Jura both helped him stand up on his own two feet; eyes watching the swirling sand bellow them.

"Well, got any plans yet?" Jura asked, eyeing the golden machine with interest.

(-)

"Meia… can you hear me?" Barnette called out. Barnette was in the danger area that Alex told them about, and she was moving as slowly as she could. She wasn't about to die on a world that would hide her corpse.

"Meia, where are you?" She cried. "Where the hell could she be? She couldn't have landed on one of the bombs, if there are any in this area. And even if she did, I would at least see smoke from the resulting explosion." She mussed to herself.

The echoing cries of her team soon reached her ears, forcing her to spin around. Eyes full of fear watched as the sky was littered with red beams. She knew what it was, and wasn't to surprised she heard another scream, this one belonging to Hibiki.

"Alex must have never found the security system!" Barnette roared, upset over his failure. This was turning out to be another bad day in the making and the only thing that could make it worse was right behind her.

Slam

A fist connected to the back of her head, forcing her spin around with her spear in hand. She was left wide eyed at the half sand covered machine that she knew belonged to Meia. The sand was covering the fist that had struck her, and slowly spreading over her body. Barnette, acting quickly, began trying to scrape off the sand, but to no avail. The more she removed, more just latched on to her, spreading at a faster rate.

Meia's cries of fear added fuel to Barnette's attempts. She was driven by the will to protect her Leader. She had to do this for her, because she knew that she would do the same for her. "Meia, hang on! I'm going to get you out!" Barnette cried.

The sand had now completely covered her machine, bringing more panic in Meia's screams. Barnette was almost at her breaking point, until something appeared behind Meia's machine. It was Alex's machine, the Freedom, flying their way.

"Alex, I need your help!" Barnette cried. Alex landed beside them, eyeing the strange machine that was covered with sand. "It's Meia, the sand did this to her!" She answered his question before he could ask it.

"How could the sand do this?" He asked, watching as Meia's machine stood up, and jumped towards the red beams. "That can't be good." Alex said, panicking as he watched her trip the beam.

An alarm began buzzing in the distance, bringing a countdown timer with it. "Yeah, that's not gonna be good." Alex moaned, watching as she came crashing down.

(-)

"Meia's vitals are extremely erratic!" Duerro stated, turning to face Alex's image. "Alex, you need to get her out of there!"

"Easier said than done; I can't find her, anywhere!" He growled, pushing on his throttle. "What's worse is that some kind of laser grid came online! BC, do you think you can track it and shut it down from up there?"

"I'll try, but you need to get the team out of there right now!" She commanded. "They're under attack by something that we can't identify at the moment."

"Great, more good news." He moaned. "Doc, how are they're vitals at the moment?"

"They're jumping up and down at the moment, and if it continues, they could go into shock." He stated. "You need to get them out of there before that happens."

"Anything else I need to know about?" He joked, not clearly expected anymore good news.

"Yes, your jokes suck." Celtic told him. Alex just laughed bitterly as he shot the costume wearer a glare that was hidden by his helmet and faceplate.

"Thanks. Hey, I found Barnette. She's in the danger zone. She's scrapping something off… she's scrapping sand of Meia's unit! I found Meia; I'll bring her back as soon as I can."

"Alex, you need to be careful. Whatever's out there isn't very friendly. So be on your guard." Magno informed him. Alex nodded before his image disappeared.

"Oh no!" Celtic whined. "A countdown timer has been activated! They have three hundred seconds."

"Can you get a hold of the team or Alex?!" BC asked. Ezra shook her head. "Let's hope they can get out of there soon then." 

(-)

"Damn it all!" Hibiki cursed, slicing another sand clone in two. The sand had taken the form of the normal Van-types, after attaching to them. It was Jura who was able to release them with her air vents on the chest of her machine. After that, things began to get better, despite the two hundred seconds they had left on the countdown timer.

"We have to get out of here, right now!" Hibiki screamed again. Jura had been pinned and Hibiki was forced to abandon the one he was currently fighting to save her. "This is getting us no where, fast! We have to leave now or we'll be getting picked up with tweezers!"

"We're not leaving without Barnette!" Jura told him, standing back up and slicing another clone with her axe. "She said she found Meia, and Alex is heading this way with them. They'll be here in thirty seconds."

"Well they had better hurry, or we might not be here when they get here!" Hibiki roared, slicing two more clones with his swords.

"Don't worry Mr. Alien, Mr. Suit will protect us!" Dita assured, punching another clone with a hard right hock. Dita's machine had an odd feature that allowed her to punch the sand clones into submission with one punch to the face with her right fist. Hibiki and Jura tried it, but didn't do as much damage as they liked.

"I doubt that the Demon will be able to protect us." Hibiki sneered, slashing another clone in two. Two more tackled him from the side, pinning him to the ground, but a right hock from Dita and a single swing from Jura's mighty axe, had Hibiki free in a second.

"Mr. Suit is no Demon, Mr. Alien." Dita scolded, punching two more clones into nothing. Dita saw movement out of the corner of her eye, seeing that it was another clone. She, along with Hibiki, charged the new arrival, hoping to kill it before it could do something to retaliate.

"No, wait!" Barnette cried, appearing from behind the machine. Hibiki and Dita stopped, staring at Barnette with tears in their eyes, well Dita and Jura did. "That thing is Meia!" She pointed to the machine.

Hibiki didn't waste any time. He pushed her machine to the ground, trying to scrape the sand off her machine. As soon as he scratched just a bit off it was quickly replaced with more, causing him to curse loudly with each new attempt.

"Please… just leave… me." Meia begged, crying as she spoke.

"No way, who the hell am I going to scream at and have scream at me if you die?" Hibiki asked continuing his tactic.

"Where's Mr. Suit?" Dita asked, jumping over to Hibiki's side with Jura behind her.

Her answer came as two large explosions echoed behind her. The sand clones were all destroyed from the resulting explosion, and having Alex come down, blasting into the sand probably didn't help much, if there were any survivors anyways.

"Dita, I'm right here." Alex announced, floating in the air, just a few feet above the sand. "Is the transport okay?"

"Yes, but we can't get to it with all the sand clones." Dita announced, pointing into the distance. Alex could barely make out the hull of the ship that loomed in the distance.

"Alright, we need to get the sand off Meia somehow and get out of here before the timer reaches zero." Alex told them. "You guys got any plans?"

"No, and Jura's trick isn't working like it did on us when they covered us." Hibiki stated. A thought suddenly came to his mind. "I got a plan!" He cried, throwing one of his swords into the silo that contained Co2. The hissing sound of gasses being released filled everyone's ears.

"Why is it getting so cold all of a sudden?" Jura asked, rubbing her arms for warmth. "Wait, cold?" She questioned. Before her eyes, she watched as the new sand clones, and the armor that was covering Meia at the moment, began to crack before falling apart.

"Come on, we need to move it!" Alex yelled, blasting off towards the transport.

"Meia, come on! Take my hand!" Hibiki cried, extending his machine's hand. He waited for a few seconds before she finally took it.

(-)

A large sphere of death could be seen from the ship on the planet. The people on the bridge began to panic as the teams' vitals vanished. Duerro had been watching them for nearly two minutes now, and not a single one had reappeared. Ezra had been calling for them for only thirty seconds now, while everyone else began to despair.

"That's enough Ezra." Magno commanded, her eyes downcast on the floor. "There's no point in continuing. If they survived, then we would have heard from them about now."

Ezra slowly cut off the communication channel, eyes full of tears. Before she could press the button, she heard Duerro gasp. "Dita's vitals have reappeared." He announced. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief while BC and Magno held they're breaths. "Barnette and Jura have also appeared." He paused. "Alex has reappeared." He paused again. "Meia and Hibiki have reappeared. They're all okay, and accounted for."

"Sorry for the scare." Alex's face and voice appeared on screen. "But we had a small problem with the transport, but we got the water and supplies. Everyone's here and okay. You might want to have Duerro check us out though.

"Just land, and will go from there." Magno ordered, smiling as she activated her lift.

(-)

"Man, I think I caught a cold." Hibiki moaned, sneezing like a mad man. A trail of snot was leaking from his nose, giving everyone a chance to wear their space suits again. Hibiki's eyes landed on Meia, who was shivering slightly. "What was with her?"

"Mr. Alien, are you okay?" Dita asked, running up to him with a thick blanket over her body. She too had caught a small cold, and her lack of clothing had caused her to catch it rather easily.

"Yeah, I just need some rest, that's all." Dita smiled and handed him another blanket, which he quickly threw over his body.

"You okay?" Alex asked, walking up to Meia with a blanket in hand. Since Alex was wearing his armor, as usual, he wasn't sick. But Duerro had given him a blanket and since Meia refused to be checked over at the moment, he figured she'd need it more then he would.

"I'm fine." She huffed, taking the blanket with no real intentions of using it. Alex just shrugged his shoulders and began to walk off. "Alexander." Alex stopped. "That's not a name I remember." Alex smiled, and continued to walk off.

"Nice to see my delay tactic did work, but I was hoping it would last longer then what it did." Alex said out loud. He could hear Meia scowling as he walked off, a smile hidden by his mask and helmet.

A/N

Odd chapter huh? Yeah, I don't really know what to say about. Please Read and Review, your thoughts do count for this story.


	5. So that's how it is

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 5 So that's how it is

"So… what do you think?" Magno asked Alex. Alex was at a loss for words. There was his station before his eyes, and he had a feeling something was wrong. The lack of mines and turrets were proof of that, since Alex had told Bart to take things slow, but when they turned up nothing, which was when he began to panic.

Meia, Barnette, Hibiki, Dita, Jura and the Bridge Bunnies, along with Magno, as usual, were all on the bridge, watching as the colony came into view. Meia came since she figured she could get some information on what Alex had talked about to her in the simulator room that day. Dita was there since Hibiki was there, who was only there to see the colony. Jura was there because Hibiki was there, and Barnette was there because Jura was there. Hibiki really did seem to be the center of attention at the moment.

"Have you found any heat signatures on the station?" Alex asked. Celtic nodded, but it was slightly delayed. "If you've found any, then why haven't we made contact with them yet?" He asked. Magno knew he was getting impatient from the sound of his voice.

"Alex, don't worry. I'm sure everything is fine." Magno tried to lift his spirits, but to no avail.

"No, something's wrong. I haven't received any replies to my emails that I've sent them in the past two days. Something wrong and I intend to find out what." Alex told her, walking towards the door. "Load up two teams; we're heading for the station. You can get your supplies in the hangers I've selected." The door hissed behind him.

"Meia, I want you to lead one of the teams with Alex. This is his colony, so that means you'll be listening to his orders. Understand?" Meia nodded, not daring to defy her Captain's orders up front. "Barnette, you'll be in charge of the second team. Stay close to Alex though, I think he might be coming back with us."

"What make you say that?" Barnette asked.

"If his colony has been attacked, then he'll have to head straight for his original colony." Magno informed her. Barnette nodded, understanding the logic in that. "I also think you might be the only two that can help if he has to do a Protocol Purge. I believe that you could help him in that field, right Barnette?" Magno asked, smiling.

Barnette smiled, remembering the good days when she worked for the Mejarru Military, before she joined up with Magno's crew, and doing standard Protocol drills. Most of the drills were pretty easy, but the last one was always a pain. It was the one that normally was given to one person and was always considered a Suicide Mission.

(-)

"Alright, Team Alpha will consist of Meia, Jura, Hibiki, and myself." Alex announced. The teams had been gathered and since the hanger they were heading to was also the warehouse for most of their supplies, a few techs were in the works. "The hanger we'll be landing in has lots of heavy machinery. Most of which, I hope you can use, since the place has actual gravity, meaning that the crates that consist of mech parts, will weigh a lot."

"What will Team Beta's mission be?" A red head in the standard pirate gear, asked.

"Team Beta will be watching over the Techs. If anything is on that station that isn't human, and by not human, I don't mean a man, I want you to blow it up. We have yet to make any sort of contact with my people on the station. So there's a good chance that what ever or who ever did it, may still be on there." Alex told them.

"Before our team heads off into the station to find the reasons for this, we'll be hitting the armory. My team will go first, followed by your team. I'll be escorting you there, while my team stays behind to cover the Techs incase anything happens." Alex could see Barnette smiling at the thought of raiding there armory in the back.

"Any questions?" Alex looked around. After not seeing any hands, he began walking for the first shuttle. "Mount up."

(-)

"The two shuttles have taken off." Belvedere announced.

"Keep an eye on that station." Magno ordered. "Since the only heat signatures we've found so far are disappearing rather quickly, that can only mean that something's on that station and what ever it is, it doesn't play well with others."

"Bart, remember to stay a good distance away from the colony." BC reminded. She could hear Bart mumbling something, but didn't truly pay attention. "Remember that if Alex is forced to detonate the colony, we need to be moving as fast as we can to be clear of the blast radius."

"I still don't see why they would power the colony with a nuke. It makes no sense." Bart cried out. BC too questioned it, but since Alex's machine was powered by one, they figured that his people had found some way to keep them within a preferred status, without, letting it blow up in their faces.

"Let's just hope that that doesn't come to pass though." Magno said out loud.

"The shuttles have successfully landed on the colony." Celtic told them, rubbing the back of her neck.

(-)

"Well the power still works." Parfait said, playing with the on/off switch. Alex rolled his eyes, though no one could see it since he was in his full gear again. "I guess we should start working, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah, get what you can with what you can. If you know how to run the equipment, it'll make your job a whole lot easier." Alex replied, motioning some of the equipment in the distance.

"Don't worry; we know how to work some of it." Parfait replied, waving the comment off with a brush of her hand.

"So, where's this armory we're heading to." Hibiki asked, walking up beside Alex. Alex looked down at him, almost as if he were comparing their height or something. "You said we were going straight to the armory, now lead the way."

"Do you even know which end the bullets come out of?" Alex asked, looking over at Dita who was interested in something off in the distance.

"Yeah, I've seen all the movies with guns in them." Hibiki joked, making a gun with his left had and pointing it at Alex's head. He made the bang noise as if he fired it, with his hand acting to the motion of one being fired.

"Movies are different from real life kid." Alex said while trying not to laugh. "Come on, this way." With that, the team followed Alex through some sliding doors and into a long corridor.

Meia was ever watchful while Jura was looking at the odd array of white walls that seemed to never end. Some areas turned into large sliding glass doors or windows that over looked either other parts of the colony, or a large Bio Garden that was covered with a thick blanket of fog. Hibiki was more interested in the motion detectors he found. They seemed to scan his movement when he came into field range for one. It was acting like someone with a laser light attached to a gun or something. It would move from his feet to his chest and then his head before he went out of range.

"This place gives me the creeps." Jura finally broke the silence that had been plaguing them for the past minute.

"Yeah, without anyone on this colony, it seems so… empty, I guess." Hibiki added. "And these stupid motion detectors aren't helping any." He motioned one of the little things with his thumb.

"Maya, stop." Alex spoke.

"Stop what." Meia asked.

"Not you, Meia. The other Maya, it's an AI that is in the system. She was placed in the colony when it was first created, and has been here ever since." Alex replied, motioning to the motion detectors.

Alex continued to walk down the corridor before turning into another corridor and stopping at a room with a keypad on the side. Hibiki watched with no real visible expression as Alex typed in the password. "2. D. U. M. B. 2. L. I. V. E." Hibiki read out loud. "What kind of password is that?" He asked.

"It's your password, moron." Alex replied, grinning behind his mask. Hibiki gave him a filthy look before walking in.

Meia and Jura took one look at the room, and knew that Barnette would be in heaven. Assault rifles lay on the sides, right next to the standard military Pump Action Shotgun. Pistols of old and new lay in a display case while the more advanced ones sat waiting on the wall in the back. Rocket Launchers were sitting on tables to the far right, while Snipers of every caliber stood on the side of an ammo table.

Alex and Hibiki walked over to the Assault Rifle area, while Jura and Meia walked over to grab a shotgun. Alex stopped as his hand brushed over something. Meia was the only one to notice his delayed movement, but figured it was nothing. Alex quickly began rummaging through all the weapon racks, counting as he went. This got his teams' full attention.

"We're missing thirty two rifles, eighteen shotguns, one hundred thirty nine pistols and about ten .50 caliber Sniper Rifles." He told them.

"So what, maybe someone raided this place or something." Hibiki told him, going back to digging around for more ammo.

"No, they're here, which means the worse did happen." Alex commented, walking over to a keypad. "What ever is here, managed to wipe out the entire colony from what it looks like. And what ever did that, might have taken out Team Saviour." The keypad hissed closed as a secret door opened up, to reveal two black cases. One was no bigger than an average suitcase while the other was about eight feet long. Alex ripped both out, and opened the smaller one first. "If that's happened, then that can only mean one thing."

"What's that?" Hibiki asked. Alex stopped as he finished putting the silver weapon together. Alex didn't know if he was talking about the gun or what he said five second prier. "What did you mean by what you said?" Hibiki asked, seeing the confused look in Alex's body language.

"This station might have been overrun by something, and if that's happened, then I have to follow procedure." He told him, lifting up the rifle and putting it on his back, which actually held it in place. "Are you ready to go back?" Alex began heading for the door.

The sound of a gun being cocked answered his question. Alex, not wanting to waste anytime, picked up the large case and began sprinting for the hanger. Meia was behind him, caring a shotgun and Assault Rifle with a black vest to hold the extra ammo she grabbed. Jura was wearing the same thing, but had taken one Shotgun and two Glocks. Hibiki had a white vest on, and was caring two Assault Rifles, with one in hand and the other strapped to his back.

"Barnette, we're inbound, ETA: two minutes." Alex reported over his headset.

"_We hear yah. We're holding tight."_She replied.

"Alex, what makes you think that the weapons are still here anyways?" Meia asked. Alex came to a dead stop as he stared out at the Bio Garden that was covered with fog. Meia and Jura looked down at it, trying to see what ever Alex saw. "What's wrong?"

"Name one thing that doesn't look right with this picture?" His tone was shaky. He was scared, and there was no two ways around it.

"I don't see anything wrong with it." Jura said, readying her weapon incase something came busting in. "Why, what do you see that's wrong with it?"

"That's the thing, we don't see anything." Hibiki commented. Alex nodded in agreement. Jura and Meia gave him questioning looks. "Listen, I may be from a world that doesn't have planet life or anything like that, but the person who took care of me used to tell me stories about the old days. He told me stories about his time on the ship that brought him to Taraaku, and its beautiful Bio Garden. One thing he had always told me was that it wouldn't fog over, like it is right now."

"Remind me to pay a visit to the man that raised you." Alex semi joked. "Because he's right: Bio Gardens DON'T fog over." Alex began sprinting down the corridor again.

"So what does that mean?" Jura asked again, getting impatient.

"It takes a lot of heat to make a Bio Garden make a thick blanket of fog like that, and it's even harder to do so without covering up the windows with condensation." Alex answered, now in a full run towards the hanger.

"What could do that, though?" Meia asked, trying to keep up with Alex. Alex stopped again, his visor locked with something down on another piece of the station. Meia followed his gaze, or what she thought was his gaze, to another piece of the station that seemed to have a large hole in it.

Bodies littered the area. They know knew what happened, just by looking at the damaged corridor. Some parts of the window had small blotches on them, meaning that what ever had transpired was bloody.

"We need to get to the others… now." Alex said, running towards the hanger.

(-)

"Where are they?!" Barnette moaned, kicking another poor can to the side. Parfait sighed as the soda can came rolling in her direction. She simply kicked it back, giving Barnette something to do, rather than sit and moan about them not being back yet. "Come on already, it's been two minutes now!" She yelled.

"I'm sure they're fine, we just need to be patient, that's all." Parfait said, trying her best to sound cheerful. Barnette gave a low growl in reply, but stood up and stretched.

A single gun shot rang through the hanger, which was soon followed by a small thud and two people crying. Barnette was instantly by the Techs' side, eyeing the grazed shoulder wound. Barnette looked up to where she had fallen from and could hear whimpering.

"There's a… man up…. there… and he's… scared of… something." The Tech swooned in pain as she doubled over from her fall. Barnette pulled out her Glock, heading straight up the latter that the Tech had used.

"Barnette!" Alex warned. He too had heard the gun shot, and was in the hanger when she began heading up. Barnette stopped cold as she began eyeing the teams' new weapons. "Get down here and let me go up." He commanded, dropping the black case.

Barnette eyed the strange black case with a sense of awe. She was more then happy to come down and go over the 'Stock' so to speak. With a quick two second scan of the case, she hopped down and trotted over to the team while Alex began climbing the ladder.

"So…"

"No, you can not hold our weapons, Barnette." Meia said, earning a small moan of disappointment from her friend.

"Here," Jura said, handing over her weapon. Barnette snatched up the weapon in a heartbeat and was quickly scanning it from all angles, except the barrel of course.

"What happened here?" Meia asked.

"A man shot her, that's all I know. She said he was scared of something. How odd…" Barnette answered, still playing with the weapon. The last comment couldn't be translated since no one knew if she was talking about the weapon, or the man.

Alex had finally reached the spot where the man was. It was a simple Tech, and he was holding their standard pistol. The man wore a name tag, but it was covered with blood and couldn't be read at the moment.

"Hey, buddy, are you okay?" Alex asked. He was hoping to start some kind of a conversation, but all he got was a bullet the ricocheting off the wall he stood behind. Alex could see Barnette playing with Jura's Shotgun, completely oblivious to the moment at hand. "Listen to me; I'm not going to hurt you."

Another bullet hit the wall, but this time he did speak. "Stay away from me you sick freaks! I won't let you get me, I'll die first." The man began to cry. "Play dead, that's what I did. I played dead. They took the live ones, but left the deads." His crying was getting louder. "Team Saviour, Captain Rainer, all gone. They're all gone…" the mans cries were cut short as a large tail shot threw his chest.

Alex jumped behind the wall as what was connected to the tail came crashing down on the scaffolding. The creature seemed more metallic then anything else. Its tail was long and jagged and just a thin sheet of metal with the center of it being round like a long tube running to the base. Its hind legs were large, and probably used for jumping high into the air. Its front legs were small and featured four clawed fingers. It body was covered with a large array of spikes that shot through most of its body while its head was left unprotected. Its head was long and covered with a slimy substance that not even Alex dared touch. Its maw was small, and had a single thin row of teeth while a single red robotic like eye scanned the area bellow it.

Alex noticed the Techs bellow had already run for good hiding places while the two teams took up hiding places that would allow them to fight the massive beast. The strange beast stood up on its hind legs, showing how big it was as its red eye began scanning the area below it for the best target. Alex became aware the thing was about the size of an average young Elephant, and probably just as powerful.

"Oh shit." Alex moaned. The strange creature instantly was looking at Alex with its red eye. Its tail swung the poor Tech away, showing no remorse for even the dead as it crashed into one of the crates on the floor beneath it.

Its tail shot out at Alex, hoping to skewer him. Alex ducked under the tail and charged the beast, shooting it as it fell to the ground. Alex stabbed the creature with a nearby pipe in the chest. The strange beast didn't scream or anything, and Alex had quickly made sure that it wouldn't, by shooting its throat out. Once he was satisfied that it was dead, and wouldn't be getting up again, he kicked the corpse off the ledge and let is body smash into the floor.

Alex breathed a large sigh of relief as he began reloading his weapon. As soon as he finished, he jumped down to the ground and began walking towards the Tech. Alex wasn't to surprised to see Hibiki standing beside the body, but was more surprised by Jura and Meia standing there with green faces.

Hibiki had already thrown up, Meia looked like she was about to throw up, Barnette was stone cold in her complexion, while Jura had thrown up and was getting greener with each passing moment.

"He's dead." Barnette said, as Alex bent down to check the man over.

"I'm not checking him for that." He replied coldly. Barnette shivered from his cold words, words that were devoid of life, or the same joyful tone they always had. This was a side to Alex that they didn't know existed.

"What are you doing then?" Jura asked, wiping the green spit from her lips.

"Checking the body." He answered. Alex had already removed the shirt and was staring at the large hole in its body. He tilted his head to his side, as if to get a better view on it. "What don't I like about our new friend and our four legged friend?" Alex asked, walking over to the dead alien.

"The wound…" Meia mussed, eyeing it strangely. "The tail was flat, and this wound is round, meaning that something came out of its tail."

"Yeah, and I think I know what." Alex said. Everyone turned around to see him holding what looked like a large pipe, about five inches in the diameter. Inside the pipe, was red blood, and Alex, wasting no time, stuck his hand inside. For those that had yet to throw up, they now had as Alex pulled out a large red mass, that was unmistakably, a heart.

'

"Is that what I think it is?" Meia asked, going green.

"Yeah, that's this guy's heart." Alex threw the heart to it vessel. "Get everyone out of here, were going to do the standard protocol now." Alex whispered, heading for the door.

"Alright, get the Techs out of here!" Barnette ordered. "Team Beta, go with them, I'll be backing up Alex and his team!" She trotted off towards Alex and his team as they left the hanger.

"You should stay with your team." Alex informed Barnette.

"I was given orders by the Captain to help you if things got this way." She replied, handing her weapon over to Jura.

(-)

"The two shuttles have returned to the Nirvana." Celtic informed everyone. "It appears that only Team Beta, minus Barnette, and the Techs have returned. From the chatter, it looks as though things have gotten real bad." She added, turning to face her Captain.

"Right," BC acknowledged. "Bart, as soon as things get stable, we need to leave this place. We need to start moving away from the station within the next three minutes."

"Rodger that!" was the reply.

(-)

"So this is where you got your weapons?!" Barnette asked, smiling at each new weapon she saw. Alex groaned as she began digging through them, looking for a certain type. She was, in all aspects, like a kid in a candy store. It was a sight that Alex new was going to stay in his mind for some time.

"Hurry up Barnette, we need to hurry before the Nirvana get out of range." Jura ushered her friend to hurry with a puppy dog face. Barnette sighed, walking back to the door with a teal colored vest and two RP90s attached to her back, while a M4A1 was in her arms.

"I hope you're satisfied, because if you lag behind, I'll leave you behind." Alex told her, walking out the door. Barnette just laughed as she trotted up beside him, with a 'devil may care' grin on her face.

"I think she went a little overboard. Don't 'cha think?" Hibiki whispered to Meia. Meia gave no reply, but she did adjust her weapon slightly, almost as if to warn Hibiki about her personal space. Hibiki sighed, letting his head drop so he could stare at the floor.

"Where are we heading?" Barnette asked, turning with Alex as he changed corridors.

"We're heading to the Command Center. That's where we'll pull all the data on this station, then head to my room to set the timer. After that," he chuckled, "we run like hell to the hanger."

"Run like hell?" Hibiki questioned.

"Yes, this has turned into a suicide mission. Meaning we all could die for information." Alex told him. His tone once again sounded as though he was talking about the weather. How could he sound so calm and carefree when he was taking a mission that promised certain death? Yep, he was an alien alright.

"So we're about to die for your stupid people?!" Hibiki yelled in anger. Alex stopped, standing still for a brief moment. Hibiki stopped to stare at Alex's back, wondering if he was about to get shot or punched.

"No," Alex didn't move. He stood tall with his back to someone he now considered an equal. "We die for humanity. We die for people that we love. We die to ensure that the tragedy of this colony goes heard. We die, answering their cries for justice. That's why we fight." Alex turned to face Hibiki, a smile hidden behind his helmet and mask. Hibiki could tell by his body language that Alex was smiling though.

"So we die, for the voices that cry for justice?" Hibiki inquired, looking out the window to the floating bodies. "We die for them?"

"But," Alex began, getting Hibiki's attention. "You do have me. Although that may not count as much in your eyes, you should know that I've only let two people down in my life. One was on a mission like this, while the other was over Taraaku. In my life, one life lost is too many; so in order to make up for that loss, I work harder to insure that it never happens again."

"You've only failed two people?" Barnette whispered to herself. _How could he have only failed two, when someone of his class would have failed hundreds? Teams like his only do suicide mission, but then that would mean that he's…_

"Let's go." Alex snapped Barnette back to reality as his metal boots clanked across the metal floor. Barnette followed a few feet behind, staring at Alex with a new sense of aw. If he was that good, then they just might make it back to see their friends. More importantly, they would be able to continue living.

(-)

"It's confirmed." BC was the one to give the bad news. "Alex has been forced to do a Self Destruction Protocol on the colony. Let's start praying for them. They'll need all the hope they can get at this point."

(-)

"So this is it?" Barnette asked, pointing to the large double doors that had large holes in it. Alex was at the keypad, punching in the password, while Barnette and Hibiki were in front of the door just five feet back with their rifles pointed at it, just incase something nasty came out. Jura and Meia were on both sides of the door. Meia was beside Alex while Jura was on the other side, closer to Barnette.

"Yeah, but from the looks of things, I doubt anything's in there." He commented. Alex walked in front of Hibiki and Barnette, both of which, lifted their rifles so as not to shoot Alex. Alex pressed the enter button, and the doors hissed open, and out fell one very nasty looking corpse.

Alex caught it, and pulled his weapon out, aiming it to the right, then the left, as he walked inside. Jura and Meia entered first, while Barnette and Hibiki backed them up, each doing the same motion as Alex. It ended with Alex being up front, weapon in one hand and body in the other. Meia to his left, crouching on one knee with her weapon pointed to the left. Jura was to his right, also crouching and pointing her weapon to the right. Barnette was behind Meia, pointing more towards the left wall, where as Meia was pointing more towards the back corner. Hibiki was behind Jura, aiming the same way, but was to her side since even when she crouched, she was still taller than him.

Thud

Alex dropped the corpse. If his helmet was gone, they would have seen him wide eyed, and full of fear at the sight before them. Bodies were everywhere. Blood was the first thing they smelled, though Alex's suit prevented outside gasses from entering. Control panels were ripped up, showing their circuits and inner workings. A single light flickered in the distance, giving the dark room the already horrific room a more horrific feel, while the occasional spark zipped across the room.

Alex dropped to his knees, crawling over to a nearby corpse. He examined it. Yep, same wound to the chest. Alex growled as he looked up, staring at the number of bodies. There must have been at least two dozen, maybe more. He couldn't tell, and he didn't feel like looking at the faces of old friends.

He growled once more, pulling the man's helmet off, and reaching up into the optical eye piece that was built into it, to pull out a small chip. Sighing, he walked over to the only true intact piece of equipment that he hoped still worked.

He was in luck.

Alex slowly placed the chip into a slot, bringing up a screen that was missing probably a good one third of its bottom half. The team walked over to him, watching as the screen flickered to life and showed a bunch of numbers, a name, the date, and a bunch of smiling faces. Alex pressed a button, fast forwarding through the video. He stopped when he saw a man in black armor, similar to his, but only three times bigger. He was a giant.

"_So Specter, when do you think Commander Alex will be back." _The man asked. The armor wearing figure turned to the sound of the voice.

"_I don't know Tom, but I hope it's soon. I'm starting to worry about the little guy. He's always running off and doing things by himself." _Then man now identified as Specter replied. He laughed as he walked over to Tom. _"I swear, he may not be married to a woman just yet, but he is definitely married to his work. That man needs to slow down and get with someone soon, or no women will be able to hold him down." _

"_Lay off him Specter." _A female, clad in a silver jumpsuit ordered. _"He's only like this because he needs alone time. You know how things are for him on the colony back home right?"_

"_Sorry Srg. But that kid needs a woman, badly." _

"_I sure hope he's alright though." _Tom said, sounding rather worried. _"It's people like him that give others hope when people have none left you know."_

"_Don't worry Tom; I'm sure he's okay." _The woman patted his shoulder. _"Besides, if he doesn't come back, how the hell am I gonna get my revenge for kicking my ass as Chess? So I know he won't die on us."_

"_I guess you're right, V." _Specter mussed.

Alex began fast forwarding to another moment in the tape. "You need a woman, badly?" Barnette mocked. Alex just grumbled as he continued his task at finding what was on the tape. "Hey, they said it, not me." Barnette raised her hands as if to shield any attack.

"V. Who was she?" Meia asked, lifting her weapon onto her shoulder.

"She's the leader for Team Saviour. Everyone calls her V. or Srg. She's one of the top five Ace Pilots of our Core." Alex replied.

"Who's the guy in the suit like yours?" Jura asked.

"He's a good friend, little loose in the head sometimes, but a real good guy and someone you can always rely on when you get in a jam." Alex answered, stopping the tape on a picture of a man smoking a cigarette.

"_Commander Alex would kill you if he caught you smoking in here." Tom stated, walking towards the man. The man just blew some smoke in his face. "Oh come on man, you know I hate that stuff, so why do you do that?"_

"_It makes you ask stupid questions, that's why." He smiled, taking another long drag off his cigarette. "Besides, what the Commander doesn't know won't kill him."_

"_True, but you should stop." _V. added.

"_It's my body, I'll do what I f…" _he was cut off as Specter appeared and punched him in the back of the head. _"Ow you big f…" _Once more he was cut off as another fist connected with his face.

"_What have I told you about that?!" _He asked, cracking his knuckles.

"_I don't give a goddamn what you told me! It's my body and my mouth. I'll say what I damn well please." _He growled, taking another drag from his cigarette. He threw it away as soon as he was finished.

"_I don't see why you continue to smoke. Drinking is okay so long as you do it in moderations, but what you do is insane." _V. commented.

"_It's like my daddy always told me, 'Live each day like it was your last'." _He smiled as he lit another one and began smoking again.

Alex once again began fast forwarding the tape in his continuing search for the truth. Barnette had a feeling that this was hard for Alex, just by watching him mess with the controls. She had seen people in this situation before, but this was different from then. Back then she could see their faces, but she couldn't because of his helmet.

"That man, who was he?" Jura asked. She had to admit, this was kind of interesting to watch. Seeing all these odd faces and a woman that was commanding a group of men was one sight she thought she'd never see.

"His name is Magic." Alex chuckled at the name. "His family is a little nuts' when it comes to names. They named is sister, Guess. Of all the names in the universe, they had to name her that." He shook his head as he continued searching for what he wanted.

"His name was Magic and his sisters' was Guess?" Hibiki questioned; a blank expression on his face. Alex chuckled again at the two names. "What kind of moron names their kids that?"

"You know something, I honestly don't know." Alex chuckled, stopping the tape on something strange.

It was an image of a Tech. "That's the same Tech from before." Jura gasped, eyeing the man with confusion. He seemed so happy, so full of life. Yet nearly ten minutes ago he was insane and shooting at them. This had to be the moment things got bad, and everyone began paying close attention, not wanting to miss any key details on the how to fight the strange beasts.

"_So Andy, how's the new machine back home coming?" _Tom asked.

"_Oh, that thing; well I don't really know where it is in the development stages, but I do know that the bill has been passed, and they intend to begin construction immediately." _The tech, know known as Andy, said. He was smiling as he walked down the corridor with Tom.

"_Can you believe they're actually going to bring it back, but what I was more surprised about was what they've already begun making." _Tom leaned closer to the Tech as he motioned for him to come within whispering range. It was jumbled and nothing came out to clear on what he said.

"_No way! You have to be kidding!" _The Tech nodded. _"That's awesome! To think that they actually intend to do that! That's truly amazing!" _

"_Yeah, and they've already begun construction. From what I've heard, it'll be done in about two months. That means that he'll get it when he turns sixteen; and to think that he's going to be piloting that machine. He's just as good as Alex was back then, and he is learning from one of the best pilots in the force. Not to mention he has his mothers' teachings too." _Andy boosted.

Sirens began blaring throughout the station. Techs began running for their lives as loud roars echoed through the corridors of the colony. The marines, shook with fear as those that stood in front of Tom and Andy, began yelling over their radios for information.

"_We have hostiles inbound on our location. I repeat, we have hostiles inbound on our location." _An old man's voice came over the net. _"Team Saviour, the hostiles have breeched terminal station 5. Alpha Lance, head to station five to back them up. Bravo Tang head to security station 2 and await further orders. Delta 9 head to hanger 3 and secure our mobile suit. These things may be coming onboard to take them out."_

"_You better get to your assigned area Andy! No telling what these things want!" _Tom told him, running towards his assigned area. He turned to his friend one last time, watching him run into hanger 5.

"That's where we landed." Meia commented.

"_Tom, get the others out of…" _a female began but was cut off as the large metallic creatures busted through the doors, jamming its long tail through her body.

"_Rose!"_ Tom raised his gun at the creature, shooting it as he yelled every kind of curse at it. The strange beast reeled back slightly before throwing the woman at him. Tom dove to the side, firing as he rolled.

"_Tom, we've got your back." _It was V. armed with a long beam saber. She charged the creature, diving around its long tail, and twisting around its attempts to grab her with its arms. She placed her foot on the base of the tail as she did a back flip to land on the creatures back, missing the spikes in the process. With a quick jab of her weapon, the creature was down and out.

"_There has to be hundreds of the little bastards." _Magic commented, shooting one of the beasts in the face with a sawed off shotgun. The creature doubled over and charged him, hoping to skewer him. What it wasn't counting on, was his large friend, dropping the ceiling and crashing down on him. _"Remind me to never walk under you and your fat ass, Specter!" _Magic joked, shooting another one of the creatures.

"_Such language." _Specter moaned, raising his large arms up with a two pairs of double band held machine guns. The metallic beasts didn't stand a chance as he opened up, showering them with bullets and tearing them apart with dead on accuracy.

"_Come on, we need to get out of here!" _V. ordered, firing her pistol into the horde of aliens. _"This way!" _

"_V. behind you!" _Tom screamed. V. spun around sliced the creatures' head off, and shot it twice in the chest to make sure it died. Within the span of two seconds, the creature had been beaten and still had yet to smash into the ground. _"Never mind."_

"_Lets go guys." _Specter roared, clearing a path with his oversized weapons. If he had been a football player, it was pretty obvious what position he played as, since nothing managed to get by him.

"_All soldiers are to report to the command center, on the double!" _The old man once again came over the net.

"_You heard him, we're heading out."_ V. barked. _"Specter, how much ammo do you have left?"_

"_Srg, you know I got enough to get you anywhere you like." _He told her, tearing the alien beasts into nothing. V. shook her head, pulling out her saber again, while Magic held back, peppering anything that got in behind them with a pair of RP90s. Not very affective, but they were holding their own against them.

"_Just two more corridors, and then we're there." _V. said, slicing another one of the beasts' heads' off. The body fell to the ground, spraying its blood into the air, making a thick cloud of red mist that was almost blinding.

"_V. we can't see shit when you do that!" _Magic protested.

"_Don't worry V. we won't be shooting you anytime soon though." _Tom said, laughing as he heard Magic curse in another language. _"No worries mate, we'll be there in a jiffy." _Tom joked. Magic began cursing again, only this time it was directed at something else.

"_Oh mother of pearl, what the hell is that thing?!" _Magic started firing at the new arrival.

This one looked about the same as the others, only it had thicker armor, more spikes on its back, and its maw was bigger than the smaller ones. Standing up, the team noticed that it was probably was big as a full grown elephant and the thing that made it scarier was it long sickle like hand. Unlike the smaller ones, this one only had one clawed finger, if you could call it that, and it was just as long and as big as it hind legs. The thing that made it scarier was the five bodies that it had skewered already.

"_Tucker!" _Tom screamed, firing at the large beast.

"_He's gone man!" _Specter told him, while Magic pulled him inside the Command Center. _"We should be safe in here." _

"_It's good to see you made it." _An old man walked up to the team, dressed in a white uniform. _"This station has been overrun, and there are too few of our troops left to combat the hostiles. I've ordered an evacuation of this facility." _

"_Captain Rainer, what are you saying?" _V. asked, sheathing her weapon.

"_We're going to follow protocol at this very moment. I'm sure you all know what that means, correct?" _He asked, walking over to the control console. _"V. I need you to do one thing though." _V. walked over, almost regretting the steps she took. _"I want you to take Maya and get out of here. Your team must survive this." _He gave her a small chip that she placed in her pocket. _"No matter what, she mustn't fall into enemy hands." _

"_Yes sir," _V. turned to her team. _"We're getting out of here; head to the Mech Hanger so we can get out of here. Understand?" _She walked to the door, brushing past Tom. _"Tom, I want you to come back alive okay? Come back to me." _

"_Don't worry V. I promise." _V. smiled as she walked out the door with her team. _"Just don't die on me either, Honey…" _

"_Tom, we need to begin protocol. Get your head out of the clouds and over here." _The Captain ordered.

"_Yes sir, Captain." _He walked over to the control consol, and began typing something into the system.

"_Captain Rainer," _A voice spoke. The two men looked up to see a glowing sphere that flickered when it talked. _"Team Saviour has died. Commander V. has placed me back into the system. You are not allowed to do protocol so long as I remain in the system." _

"_Damn it!" _Tom cursed. _"Captain, we have to do this. You know that our secretes can not fall into enemy hands."_

"_I'm aware of that soldier, but right now, we need to…" _a red mist smacked Tom in the face as a large tail appeared through the old mans chest. Tom spun around, just in time to see the new arrival, ready to stick him with its knife like hand.

The screen went fuzzy before brining up the words, 'KIA' and then died. Alex stood there, unable to move. He must have stood there for hours, just staring at the screen, hoping it was a lie. His friends, people he considered family, gone in the blink of an eye. And for what, they're hearts?

"Alex…" Meia whispered. She couldn't see his face, but she had a feeling he was crying. Why not, he just watched the death of his people. People he must have known for a long time, people that considered him family.

"Luna…" Alex whispered to himself. Barnette placed her weapon on her shoulder, unable to say or do anything for the man. She had never expected to see a place where men and women lived in harmony, fight alongside one another. This was something she wasn't ready for.

"ALEX! WATCH OUT!" Meia yelled, as one of the smaller creatures appeared above him, ready to end his life.

A/N

Okay, this will be the last update for awhile because my beta reader just caught up. From the looks of things, I won't be able to update until Sundays and Wednesdays because those are my days off. I hope I can end the station fight in the next chapter though, because its looking pretty long at the moment.

As always, Read, Review, and no flames please.


	6. Press Any Key

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 6 Press Any Key

Bang

A single shot rang out. The creature stood still. Alex stood still. Nothing moved. No one wanted to move. The creature finally let gravity take it as its body crashed to the ground, a single bullet in the head. Alex stood still, his arm cocked backwards with his gun in hand and pointing behind him, right where the creatures head once was.

"Damn." Hibiki whispered.

"Maya, I know you're there." Alex whispered. "I watched the video from Tom's chip. So please answer me."

"Yes, I am here." She said, her body not appearing. Alex knew something was wrong. She normally appeared in her ball form, or at least allowed her face to be seen, but not this time. "I am truly sorry for the death of your friends, but…"

"Open up the X Vault." He ordered, walking towards the door. "Give me the best route to the armory and tell me what kind of those bastards it was that killed Team Savior." He commanded.

"It appeared to be one of the new arrivals, a Special Forces Unit, if I am not mistaken." She informed him. "The best rout to the armory would be two corridors down to the left, then three to the right, then through Hanger 1. I have updated your PDA with the best route incase you forget." She added. "What weapons need to be ready?"

"I'll take care of that part; you just download yourself to my laptop in my room. We're getting out of here in one piece, and there's no two ways about it." Alex said, taking the route provided. Meia and the others were quickly behind him, listening to the voice of the AI as she followed them through the systems in the station.

"I will do so, after you have successfully reached the X Vault. I hope you do not intend to purge me for my action, but it is only because one of the Special Forces Units' is guarding the entrance." Maya said.

"Thanks, but I don't think I'll be needing help in dealing with these bastards." Alex informed her, turning right, leading down another long corridor, this time, with hundreds of bodies.

"I really hope we don't run into what ever did this." Jura said, holding her gun as tightly as she could. Alex snorted at her words. "You wanna run into these things?!" She bellowed, clearly in shock. "They managed to take out a man that was holding two weapons that I doubt an ordinary man could carry, a woman who was probably quicker than Meia and a man that had one dirty mouth!" She screeched.

"If you don't wanna help me, then I suggest you go find your own way off this rock." Alex replied, his voice colder than ice. "I'm going to kill any inhuman SOB dumb enough to get between me, and Hanger 39!"

"Your machine is still down for some minor upgrades. It has yet to be tested, and the new weapon has yet to be fired. Your chances of the machine working properly, stand at only twenty three percent." Maya told him.

"I didn't get where I am today by hating my odds." Was the reply she received. Maya, if you could have seen her body, would have been blinking in surprise at his words.

"Demon, don't you think this is a little insane?" Hibiki voiced in minor opinion as he followed him through the mountain of bodies. He scanned a few of them, hoping that he wouldn't see any children. The closest to that age was a young girl, probably no older then fifteen. Hibiki just couldn't bring himself to draw his eyes away from the bodies. He was fixated on them.

"No, I don't." Alex replied, walking into Hanger 1. The team came to a stop as they looked down below them. They were really high up, and one missed step would send them to a certain death. "Don't look down."

Hibiki gulped as he did look down, seeing hundreds of the little monsters below him, screeching as the walked around the room, trapped most likely. Meia pointed her weapon down at them, incase they saw them. Jura was more than happy to remain looking towards the wall they were walking to, while Barnette was keeping an eye on the beasts below.

"This room we're about to enter into is heavily guarded. It has two, five inch armor plating, with the middle layer being made of Zeo Alloy. Before you ask, it's an alloy that can't be penetrated." Alex walked over to a keypad, and began pressing the buttons. "Most of the weapons in here are specially made for people like me. Meaning these things will kick, and kick hard."

The door hissed open, showing them a new corridor that had three bodies. It was the people from before. Team Saviour was before them, each one dead. Alex walked over to V.'s body, taking a good look at her. Barnette was looking down at Specter, wondering how he was even able to lift the heavy weapons. Jura and Hibiki were staring at Magic. He died in true fashion they guessed. A cigarette in hand while another one, was tucked in between his lips and a smile on his face.

"So this was done by one creature and only one creature." Hibiki mussed.

"Yep." Alex mumbled, pocketing something. The team caught movement out of the corner of their eye. Alex didn't avert his gaze from the corpse before him. Meia said something, but he didn't listen. Hibiki and Jura began firing like crazy while Barnette threw something that made a loud explosion just two seconds later.

It was the beast that had taken out the team. It was one of the special unit's that Maya had mentioned. Alex ducked just in time to avoid the large tail, letting it jam itself into the wall. Alex rolled under the swinging arm that would have sliced him in two, and fired his weapon straight into its face. The beast roared in pain, kicking Alex away with one powerful kick. Alex rolled to a stop, landing on his feet, and firing his weapon at the creatures' skull. The bullets penetrated its head, letting out large streams of black blood.

Barnette fell back, shooting as she went, towards Alex with Jura and Hibiki doing the same. Meia stayed where she was, in between the door frame and firing at its legs, hoping to take the beast out, or just shoot one of its legs off.

"Alex, our weapons aren't penetrating it!" Barnette said, noticing that nothing was getting through its heavy armor.

The creatures' tail was finally ripped free from the wall, and was swung above the team. Alex was hit hard by the tail, sending him skidding backwards. The beast jumped over the other four members, to land above Alex. Alex reached for his weapon, but the creature crushed it with his tail. The beast then roared as it lifted its massive arm, high into the air before dropping it and aiming for his head. Alex rolled over, dodging the attack.

"Alex, are you alright?!" Meia cried out through the sound of gunfire. Her answer came as the head of the massive beast exploded into nothing. Its corpse smashed to the ground, soaking the ground with its black blood. Before them, stood Alex, covered with the black blood, or so they figured anyways. Hey, he was wearing black armor and the gold lines that were etched into his suit weren't visible.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He assured them, walking back to them. "I don't think that bastards going to be getting up anytime soon." He joked.

However, the creature proved him wrong as it stood up, no head, and still squirting blood from its head. The team stood there, completely disgusted and dumbfounded at how the creature could still be alive.

"How the hell is that thing still alive?!" Hibiki screamed, pointing to the large beast with no head.

Alex had no answer, unless you consider charging the beast with V.'s beam saber and cutting off is left arm as he jumped onto its' back a response. The beast jumped into the air, smashing its' back into the ceiling. Alex was lucky that its spikes were spaced apart just enough for him to hide in, and that it didn't jump with enough force to crush him. Once the beast was back on the ground, Alex plunged the beam blade into its back, thanking anything and everyone that it didn't have a head to roar with. Its' tail however, made up for that by trying to stab him or swat him away. Alex ducked, and jumped over the attacks, just barely dodging them. The beast finally dropped a notch on intelligence, as it tried to skewer Alex. The only problem with its attempts was that its' tail was pointed directly at its back, and Alex was lucky enough to jump off before it could strike.

The beast impaled itself with its' own weapon. The tail continued through the body, and smashed into the ground. Alex landed a few feet away, looking at the beast with confusion. The beast had run itself directly through its chest and it was still alive. Alex, thinking fast, threw his last grenade into the throat of the beast. The team jumped behind the door frame while Alex stood tall beside the beast.

The beast exploded from the inside out, spraying its mechanical organs all over the hallway. The team slowly came out of the hiding spot to see two things. One was the mechanical body that explained how the creature had survived after having its head destroyed. And the second was seeing Alex covered in the black gooey like blood.

"It's dead now." Alex huffed, stepping on one of the organic mech parts as he walked over to another keypad.

"You know what," Hibiki began. The women walked over to Alex as he finished typing the code in. "I now like our odds of survival." Hibiki walked into the room, where he nearly let his jaw hit the ground.

The room was solid white. In the back, large target boards lay destroyed from some kind of a weapon. Odd weapons were hanging to the walls, each one bigger then the one above it. Alex walked over to a display case, cocked his head to the left, and then punched the glass to shatter it.

He grabbed a black weapon, scanned it, and then cocked it. "This is an AS50 Rifle that I've converted to semi auto." Alex announced, placing the weapon on his back. He grabbed a silver weapon and handed it to Barnette. "This is a DSR 1 series Sniper Rifle that V. converted to semi auto as well. I'm sure that this is what she came for. It has a magazine of thirty shells that can pierce through two solid inches of solid steel and keep on going." Barnette eyed the weapon, the placed it on her back. Alex sighed and grabbed two other weapons that were silver in color. "These are the SG 550 Sniper Rifles that my sister first altered to semi auto. She gave them to me when she turned eighteen, just two days before I left to be transferred here. Like the DSR, these babies have the same power, but less ammo in the magazine. They can only hold twenty five shells. " Hibiki and Meia took the weapons, and cocked them.

"You should know that these things all used Zeo Alloy, meaning these damn things can pierce anything." Alex warned.

"Alex," Barnette began. Alex looked at her, a brow raised, though hidden by his helmet. "You use some kick ass gear." She chirped, picking up the ammo for her new 'toy'.

"What ever." He muttered, walking out of the room, into the blood soaked corridor. His team followed, making sure that nothing got in behind them.

Meia was beside Alex, working as active sharp shooter for the team. Her sharp shooting skills were second to none as far as she knew. Hibiki was behind her, working mid gunner. Jura was to Hibiki side, doing the same role, only she probably was better with a gun then he was. Barnette was working as active sniper for the group, and no was going to dare question her shooting skills.

"So where to now?" Barnette asked.

"We're heading to my room." Alex announced, sounding somewhat happy. "We're going there to get my laptop, with Maya in it, some clothes, and a few personal items that no one will be taking away from me." Alex glared at Barnette and Jura. Both girls shivered under his glare, but figured that anything that he was willing to protect was not worth it. They had enough sense to not piss him off anymore than what he already was.

"Why your room?" Meia mussed, clearly not liking the idea. "Why can't she just download herself into a machine or something?"

"First off, I need to get some items from my room. Secondly, I need my laptop. I hate having to send emails on my damn wrist PDA. Lastly, I want to see if something is in my room." Meia gave him a strange look while Hibiki didn't really seem to be paying attention. "Its personal." He informed her. Meia backed off after that, figuring it was something like that video they watched.

Meia didn't say anything when V. told Tom to survive for her, and then left. Nor did she say anything when Tom whispered for her to stay alive for him, or when he called her 'Honey'. Meia was a little riddled by how a man and a woman could even be in love with each other, if that's what was going on at the moment anyways.

"Hostiles, two o'clock." Barnette yelled. She fired her weapon one time, and almost fell on her butt. "Gezz, these things really do kick hard!" She screamed, rubbing her wounded shoulder.

Alex was having no such problem as he unloaded into the horde of monsters with deadly precision. Jura wasn't really having that kind of a problem, but she was rocking back and forth with each round fired. Hibiki wasn't having any problems what so ever. He actually was able to stand his ground as he fired into the horde of enemies, while Meia herself, suffered no such problem. So the standings stood as Alex, Meia and Hibiki having no problems in firing the powerful weapons. Jura was in second, suffering from only the rocking, while a bemused Barnette suffered in last place for falling on her butt.

Within two minutes, the corridor was cleared of hostiles, and Alex was more than happy to press the button to call the elevator. Two more weaklings appeared, but Barnette was ready for them, and this time, didn't fall on her butt.

The elevator doors opened, and the team of five walked in. When the doors closed, some odd elevator music kicked on. Hibiki arched a brow as he turned to Alex with confusion and disappointment written on his face.

"This is a military station, and you guys listen to music in an elevator?" He spat. Alex chuckled in response while the elevator door opened just in time for a single alien to appear, which Alex promptly shot once in the face, killing it before it could enter. "Never mind, I think I like the music." Hibiki corrected. Alex once again chuckled.

"You and I both, kid." Alex laughed. Meia shook her head at the sight of the two men. One was cold and ruthless, and had his heart set on revenge while the other was a man from Taraaku and hated Alex's very existence.

The elevator doors opened up to a large foggy area. Alex hummed in disappointment while Hibiki went into 'State the Obvious' mode. "This is the Bio Garden we saw from the corridor near the hanger we entered from."

"Looks like it." Alex groaned, pressing a few buttons on his wrist PDA. A humming sound echoed through the small elevator room, before quickly disappearing. "Heat Vision, engaged," Alex turned to his team. "Stay close, there's no telling what's out there waiting for us." he cautioned.

(-)

"So, what do you think their chances are?" BC whispered to Magno. The two had been waiting patiently for the explosion of the station, and the reunion of the team that stayed behind to make sure it happened.

"Not sure, but I do know that Alex won't allow Meia to die so easily." She whispered back. "That boy thinks he has a debt to her and her family. So he'll make sure that nothing bad happens to her."

"A debt?" BC questioned, a brow arched slightly.

"If they survive this, then I'm going to have Alex tell the truth to the men, and his people's involvement in the incident on Mejarru. He won't enjoy doing it, but if he wants to get home, then he'll have no choice." Magno told her.

"I see, but this could easily blow up into a bad situation that not even you could defuse." She whispered back.

"I think that the women will understand since Alex isn't to blame for anything, unless you call Justice a reason." Magno narrowed her eyes on Bart as he exited the chamber. "You really think we're far enough away now, do you?"

"We're far enough away, I'm sure of it." Bart grumbled. "Besides, I think I could outrun a nuclear explosion if I had to." He boasted.

"I certainly hope you're right, because if you're wrong, I'll be haunting you for the rest of time itself in heaven." Magno joked. Bart just brushed her comment off with a wave of his hand as he went out the doors.

"In all honesty, I doubt he could, truly outrun something like that, nor do I think that Alex could pull off a miracle like that." BC whispered. Magno nodded in agreement, but she did know something that no one else knew about Alex.

(-)

The team was panting hard. They were thankful that Alex's suit came with a built in motion detector, or they would have all been dead. They had spent the last five minutes dealing with another one of the special units, as Maya called them, and ended up just dropping a bunch of trees on it to crush it to death. Surprisingly, the idea came from Hibiki, and it even worked, since the only moving part of the creature was its' single hind leg that survived the large trees.

"Well… that was… fun." Alex gasped. Hibiki laughed while Jura and Barnette chuckled slightly. Meia gave no reaction, but she did smile slightly. She was just thankful that no on noticed it.

"Well… now where too?" Barnette asked, standing up.

"We need to head straight down this corridor and then to the left at the first T section. My room is on the right and is labeled '409'." Alex told her. He slowly got to his feet, then helped Jura and Hibiki up.

Meia stood up, cocked her gun, and nodded that she was ready to go. "Alright, lead the way, Demon." Hibiki moaned.

"You know something; I really am going to hurt you if you keep calling me that." Alex growled, shooting his gun off at one of the more distance enemies. A loud roar signified that the bullet hit, and a body crashing to the ground, signified that he killed it.

"I ain't scared of you." Hibiki boasted, aiming the weapon at him. Alex plugged the barrel with a single finger, and hoped that Hibiki would be dumb enough to test his luck. Barnette quickly unplugged Alex's finger, while snatching the gun away from Hibiki.

"Hibiki, you do not EVER, point a gun at another person unless they are a real threat!" She yelled. "Alex is trying to save us, destroy this installation, and get out of here in one piece! You should be thankful that we've survived so far!" She shoved the gun back into his arms. "Don't you ever, do something that stupid again!"

"Whatever." Was her reply.

"Don't worry about it, Barnette." Alex assured her. "He can't hurt me, because he understands that I'm the only one who can get him off this installation. So he won't try anything that stupid again." Alex walked off, shooting something down in the corridor to his left. Once again, another roar, another loud crash, both of which signified that another one of the monsters had died.

The others sighed, knowing this might take a while. They hurriedly caught up with Alex, shooting anything that wasn't human on the way. Alex stopped them, motioning to the left as something sounded down in the depths of the long blood soaked corridor. Amongst the bodies, stood an odd creature. They cocked their heads slightly, almost as if to get a better view of it. Didn't help, since it was one of the special units again, but it was lacking something. It was lacking something that they couldn't put their fingers on.

"It has no torso, no neck, no arms, and no head." Hibiki finally blurted. Alex nodded slightly, staring at the odd thing. It was still clearly alive, if you could even call it that. It was walking about. Its' tail was swishing side to side. Its legs were scratching the ground, obviously looking for something. The only thoughts on their minds were, "How". They got the "How" part quite well. What they wanted to know was the, "How did it suffer that much damage" part.

"You think there might be some survivors?" Hibiki finally blurted again.

"Somehow," Alex began, watching as the strange beast continued to walk around. "I don't think so." Barnette shot him a confused expression. "This station has lots of equipment. What if the damn thing just hit something, and lost its top half?" He motioned the creature in question.

"Regardless of how it got like that, we have to take it out." Meia announced. She pointed to something it was guarding. "I believe THAT would be your room. Correct?" She lowered her hand and readied her weapon.

"Yeah, but I don't think it knows we're here." Alex stated, motioning the missing top half of the beast with his gun. "Maybe it's just… to dumb to know how to die." He mussed.

"To dumb to know how to die?" Hibiki questioned, arching a brow. "That's the dumbest thing I've heard you say all day." Hibiki placed his gun on his shoulder. Alex rolled his eyes, though still hidden by his helmet, as he started creeping towards his room, hoping it wouldn't see him, or smell him, or what ever it could do that would allow it to know he was there at the moment. God these things were strange.

Jura and Barnette had their weapons ready, incase it did spot him, or sniff him out, or just knew he was there by some odd chance of luck. Meia half readied her gun, believing that the _thing _wouldn't see him or smell him. Hibiki just kept his on his shoulder, resting peacefully as he waited for this to either blow up in Alex's face, or succeed. Hibiki thought about that for a minute, then pointed his gun incase it tried something. Hey, he had enough sense to know that Alex was their ticket off the station.

_Come on you stupid asshole. Don't you dare see me… err smell me. God that sounds so lame. It's missing half its' body, so how the hell can IT see me?! _Alex thought, leaning against the wall as he inched his way to his door. His fingers found the keypad, and slowly started typing the password. A slight dinging noise filled the semi quiet room, letting Alex know that he got it.

Smash

The tail connected with the keypad, destroying it and almost taking off Alex's hand in the process. It was then that Alex saw what it was doing. It wasn't acting dumb and looking for something, it had been digging a hole and eating the metal in the floors and walls to make a new body. His eyes widen as the creatures' _new _head could be seen from inside what remained of the body. Slowly but surely, Alex crawled back to the others, as a loud roar boomed from within the bowels of the monster. Alex jumped the rest of the way to his team, rolling in the process as he readied his weapon. The others were by his side as the new head and new arms appeared, tearing out of the body in a gross fashion.

"Awe man, I think I'm going to hurl." Hibiki gagged.

"Shut up and shoot it!" Alex roared, firing into the beast as the new features finally finished appearing.

Barnette opened up with Jura as Meia and Hibiki began reloading their weapons. Alex was going to say something to them, but the creature before him was more important than stating a well known fact in that all military personal, or for that matter, any pirate, should know. ALWAYS make sure your weapon is fully loaded. Don't wait until you need it, and then find that you only had one bullet in the chamber. Its not rocket science people.

The beast roared in pain, and beckoned more of its underlings to aid it. Not two seconds later, about ten of the smaller ones appeared from the hole underneath the large one, and looking mighty hungry. Hibiki noticed something odd about one of the monsters, and blinked in surprise. The thing had a pink doll of some kind, hanging in its mouth.

"Were there little kids on this colony?!" Hibiki yelled over the gun fire.

Alex was reloading his weapon as he replied. "Yes, but protocol states that they're the first to leave the station in a battle situation! Why do you ask?!" Alex went back to firing at the new arrivals that continued to pour out of the hole in the floor.

"I think one ate a little child, that's why!" Hibiki yelled back, firing at the horde before them. Alex stopped for a moment, scanning the horde for any signs that would give Hibiki that idea. He then saw what he saw. He saw the pink doll hanging from the creatures' maw, blood covering its tiny arm.

"Barnette," Alex whispered. Barnette looked up at him, stopping her assault as they took cover behind the corridors' T section wall. "Give my your weapon." He ordered.

"Why?!" She clearly didn't understand, nor like the idea of him taking away her means of fighting back.

"Because, I'm going to finish what V. started. I'm going to finish this thing off, for her." He stood up; pulling out the pocketed item he took from her. It was a purple spike, no longer than a pencil, and probably about as big as one too. Barnette sighed, handing over her new prized possession. Alex slipped the strange devise into the barrel, turned to the alien with the gun in one hand and a smile that lay hidden by his mask. "For you Luna, I would have gladly given my life if..." He whispered to himself.

The beast roared as it continued its charge. Alex pulled the trigger, and for a moment, time stood still for him. He could see her again. He could see two women smiling at him. Nothing could hide the smile that played on Alex's lips. He could see them again, he was seeing them again. He closed his eyes, lowered the weapon, and waited for what he knew was coming.

Bang

The beast exploded just three feet away from him, sending its' metallic like organic body parts flying. The team looked at him, then the dead body, then back to Alex. They could tell that he was happy, just by looking at his back. For some reason, they didn't want to ruin the moment he was having. Who could blame them? There was nothing left of the enemies at the moment, and Alex had taken care of the bigger one with one hell of a grenade.

"I'll never forget either of you. I promise." Alex whispered to himself. He had attained what he always wanted. Peace of mind. It was something he wanted ever since her death, and now he had it. He held it in the palm of his hand, so to speak. Smiling one more time, he moved over to the door, pressed the green button, and walked into the room with his team following him slowly.

His room was basic military standards, bed in one corner, closet in one corner, a desk next to a window, and a small bathroom in the other corner. His bed was jet black in color, his wall were painted a dark purple, his computer was a desktop and his laptop lay beside it, bright silver in color. A small blowing ball however above it, sparkling like some kind of crystal. The team had half a mind to just poke it, or in Barnette's case, just shoot it.

"Nice to see you made it." Maya replied, shining brightly as she spoke.

"Good to be home, even if it is for only four minutes." Alex moaned, grabbing a duffle bag from under the bed. He went to his closet while the others grabbed another duffle bag and started putting pictures Alex told them to grab. Maya pointed out a few that they should take too.

Meia, trying to stay out of everyone's way, decided to just sit on the bed. It was comfy, not as comfy as her bed, but still comfy. Her hands swiveled over his thick blanket, which was actually kind of cool looking. She noticed it had large dog head on it, probably a wolf head, while a dragons' head lay beside it. Both were solid gray, and a single eye shinned from both heads. She had to admit, it was kind of cool, despite it belonging to a man that is.

"I'd suggest you rest a bit." Alex suggested. The team looked at him for a moment, watching as he took a seat at the computer desk. "It'll take some time for me to initiate the detonation sequence." He added.

"How much time are you giving us?" Barnette asked, looking down at the two duffle bags. They probably didn't way more then five pounds, if not ten, but even that would slow them down a little.

"I'll give us about twenty minutes. That should give us enough time to get out of here, and put some distance between us and the station. Anymore, and the enemy might try to deactivate it."

"Sounds like a plan." Meia mussed lightly, lying down on the comfy bed. Her hands went under the pillow, just like she did in her room when she was thinking of a new strategy or whatnot. But her hands crossed something. She moved her fingers across it, slowly scanning it, in an attempt to figure out what it was. No luck, and finally giving into curiosity, she pulled it out. It was a piece of paper, with the words "For you" written in black ink. Meia flipped it over, scanning the back of it. She rolled her eyes, and then opened it.

_Dear Alex_

_Two years today. That's a long time to be away from home, but I guess you don't really care, do you? I can't blame you. All those cameras and those damn reporters. It would be pretty infuriating if you asked me. So I guess I just understand why you transferred here in the first place._

_I wish you were here though; everyone misses you right now, especially V. but she just wants you to help her kick Magic's butt for being such an ass as of lately. He actually blew smoke in her face! Sometimes I wonder if he was dropped on his head as a child._

_I got the test results back, and they came back positive. Can you believe it, I'm pregnant and you're going to be a daddy. Don't worry though, I haven't told anyone just yet. I'm waiting for you to get back so we can tell the Captain. _

_I sure hope you're readying this, and if I run into you and you say you haven't seen it or read it, I'll kick your ass all they way to the colonies and back. You can be such a moron sometimes, but I guess I picked you, so that makes me one too, right?_

_Anyways, I hope you read this soon. When you get back, come to my room so I can show the pictures. And incase you forgot again, its room 489. And if I hear that you went to V. to ask her again, just to be funny, I'll kick your ass for that too._

_Sincerely Yours: Luna L. Hawk/Switchfoot _

_PS. I had to add that since when we announce this, we can announce that too._

Meia blinked in surprise. Alex was a father? How strange. And he was a moron? Those two things didn't really seem to fit his personality, but then again, Meia hardly knew him. She folded the letter up and placed it in her pocket, with the intentions of talking to Alex later about it.

"How much longer?" Jura cried.

"Not much longer." Maya replied. She was sitting beside Jura at the moment, appearing out of the laptop that was beside her. "He only has to bypass all security firewalls before he has access to the self-destruct sequence."

"Why couldn't you do that for him?" Barnette asked. Barnette was walking around the room, flipping through a sketchbook that had her raising her brows with each page. "Who drew these?"

"I did." Alex told her, not once looking up from the monitor. "I like to draw. It helps me… relax." He stuttered. "Which one are you looking at, by the way?" He turned to face Barnette, a smile hidden by his helmet, as always.

"It's a girl with her back turned to you, a thin piece of cloth covering her naked butt, and a dragon tattoo etched on her back. It looks like it was set in some kind of… Japanese theme or something." Barnette showed him the picture, earning a few chuckles from both Maya and Alex. "You seriously drew this."

"Yeah, and I have it as my wallpaper." He announced, turning back to the monitor to finish his task. "I have some more on the computer, but I normally stick to that one. It usually keeps the guys from thinking I'm gay."

"The word you are looking for is "Queer"." Maya corrected.

"Whatever." Alex huffed.

"I like the design though." Barnette mutter, closing the book and throwing it into one of the bags. "I guess you could draw a few other "Items" in there, since you'll be with us for sometime I guess."

"Yeah, next one will have you in it." Alex joked. Barnette glared at him, but then blushed at the thought of being in his book. Jura picked the book up and flipped through it, blushing with each new page, while Hibiki just stared at the images, dumbstruck and in utter belief. "Done…" Alex announced; his serious tone back. He stood up and picked up the two bags, while Jura slung the laptop into a case, but not before killing the power. Maya transmitted herself to Alex's PDA, deciding that she would be better off in their, since her chip had been inserted into the laptop. "We have twenty five minutes now, since I decided to give us some extra time just incase we run into too many of those bastards." Alex told them, walking over to a wall and punching it. The wall hissed slightly as secrete door opened.

"Secrete exit." Jura mussed, clearly impressed.

"No, ammo holder. I've always had extra ammo in my room incase of emergence." He informed her, pulling out some extra magazines. He threw three to Barnette, then four to Meia and Hibiki, then two to Jura, and then pulled two for himself. "Come on, I'm sure that Maya can get us out of here the quickest, since she's in my PDA at the moment."

"If we're going to go to Hanger 39, we need to take a shortcut, straight through Section C1." Maya stated. Alex opened the door and shot the only monster that had appeared before them. It almost seemed to have been waiting for them or something. "Sorry, I guess I should be quiet for now, since you'll be trying to kill things."

"I don't need to _try_, I can kill them." He moaned, walking out into the corridor. Hibiki and the others shrugged, and followed him out into the hallway.

"This area we have to go through, why is it a short cut?" Hibiki asked.

"The main way to the hanger was destroyed when the aliens got here." Maya began. "I'm sure you noticed that large hole on one of the sides of the station, correct?" Hibiki nodded as her ball form appeared. "Well the only way to it now is through the Fusion Reactor Section, which is what we just primed to detonate."

"We have to go past, the thing we just primed to explode?" Hibiki questioned. Maya nodded while Barnette just shrugged. Jura stared at the AI, completely dumbfounded as to how she could act so calmly when they were going to pass something that was going to explode. Meia had no reaction, what so ever. It just seemed like another day in paradise for her.

"At what time were you going to tell us this?" Jura finally asked.

"Only when you asked." The AI replied, blinking out of existence.

"Your AI is really getting on my nerves." Jura moaned. Alex chuckled as he turned into another corridor that, lead to another elevator. "Does she even know what this will do to my skin?"

"She doesn't care." Alex said, pushing the button to go down. "She's use to people like me dealing with her. These sorts of things don't faze us, and so she knows how we react to them. She wasn't planning on dealing with people like you, of course Meia and Barnette kinda fit the bill since Meia had no expression and Barnette just shrugged it off."

Jura huffed one more time as she entered the elevator. Once again, they were forced to deal with the same elevator music. Maya made a comment saying they should change to something like an Opera theme or something like that. Jura rolled her eyes, but agreed. Hibiki didn't say anything while Barnette said it could use some spice, whatever that meant.

Once again, the elevator door opened, Alex shot the new alien in the face, he closed the doors, and they were back on they're marry little way. Once again, the process was repeated, only this time, Barnette shot it in the face, then Alex stepped on its head and shot two more while Jura shot three to the left, Hibiki shot two above them, and Meia and Barnette worked together to shoot ten that were coming up from behind the elevator lift.

Once the aliens were killed, the team got a good look at their surroundings. Large furnaces covered most of the area, and gave it a coal engine sort of feel. Hibiki was the one to point out that this was the power station, and Alex corrected him by saying this was the instrument of death if they didn't hurry up and move.

They were only in the room for no less then two minutes, since they ran into another special unit, and Alex, rather than stay and fight it, told everyone to run for it. Surprisingly, the creature wasn't too bright, or it was just blind. It crashed into almost everything they ran around while they ran to the other side of the chamber. They were rather lucky that Barnette decided to shoot the door loose so Alex and Hibiki could kick it in, so they could run through it, and let the alien smash its head into the thick wall, knocking it unconscious.

The team crashed to the ground, tired from their run, but they had no time to waste. Every second they stopped, the more of a chance they had of the station blowing up with them in it. Gathering themselves up, they stood before two doors, while the one behind them had a large dent in it from their friend that found out how hard the walls were. Maya appeared again, humming as she scanned the two doors for the safer route.

"We need to go through the right door, but there are two more special units behind it." She stated and warned at the same time. Alex nodded, reloaded his gun, which prompted everyone else to do the same, as he scanned the roof for something. It took Maya a full ten seconds to grasp what he was going to do. "I know what you're thinking, and you're crazy."

"So… you gonna stay here?" he snickered, walking over to a nearby ladder.

"What are you doing?" Meia asked, about to follow him up.

"Stay down there and wait for my signal to open the door. I might be able to surprise you." He joked, climbing high into the darkness of the roof. His metal boots clanked above them, letting them know that he was directly above them.

_It would be easier if you told us the signal, moron. _Meia growled, using Luna's words as her own.

"Yep," Maya appeared beside Jura, floating out of the laptop case she was carrying. "He's really going to get himself killed one of these days if he keeps this up." She mussed as she faded away just as quickly as she appeared.

"Okay, let them in!" He yelled.

_He's joking…right? _Jura yelled in her head. Barnette sighed and pressed the green button. As soon as she did this, she jumped back, just in time to shoot two of the smaller units, while the two bigger ones busted through the door and charged the team. They quickly scattered, firing as they went.

Hibiki dove behind a large supply of wooden crates, firing into the legs of the two beasts. Jura took shelter behind some metal pipes, blasting into the hips of the two beasts. Meia flipped behind some warheads, firing into the face of the two beasts. Barnette took no shelter, standing her ground and firing like crazy into their guts. The team of four continued blasting and reloading when they ran out, but for all the bullets fired, they couldn't bring them down. They were mostly machines, and they had yet to find a power supply on them. They had two options at the moment. One was to just run like hell through the door and hope they made it to hanger where they would be safe, while the second option was to continue shooting aimlessly into their bodies, hoping to hit the power supply or something that would stop them from moving. They had a third option, and that option made its self known as it came crashing down, smashing the monsters into nothingness. The gooey like blood splattered over the team, completely grossing a few out. They looked up to see what had done it, and weren't to surprised to see the torso of a busted up machine being the culprit, with Alex smirking on the side of it.

"Did I miss anyone?" He asked, jumping off the busted machine. Jura walked up to him, and punched him in the gut. Her attack didn't faze him, since she hit his chest armor, meaning she only hurt herself. "Nice to see you too." he joked, walking to the busted down door.

"Come on, just one more door, and we're home free." Alex told them, running through the door with the team behind him.

"How much time is left?" Barnette asked. She didn't want to know, but she had a feeling that someone was going to ask it anyways.

"We have five minutes and thirty three seconds left." Maya told her.

"Only five minutes!" Hibiki yelled. "How much further until we get to the hanger!"

"Just one more door and we're there!" Alex yelled, shooting the next door off its hinges. He just ran through it, blasting the two aliens in the room while his team looked at a single life pod in pure shock. "Just one, I thought there'd be more." Alex whispered to himself.

"How many people can those hold." Meia asked.

"They're built for only one person, but you can cram three people in there, if they're skinny enough." Alex admitted. The team fell into despair. All of this and only three could go. What were the chances of them all getting off anyways?

"Barnette, Jura and Hibiki should go." Meia announced. The team stood there, staring at their Flight Leader in pure shock. "Alex can send Maya with you guys, so she can get you through the other colonies, that is, if there are anymore."

"No Meia, you need to go with them!" Barnette protested. Alex sighed and walked away. "You can combine with Hibiki, that means you're more important then me! You're also the Flight Leader. That gives you more of a reason to go then me!" she began to shove her into the pod. Meia spun around, kicking Barnette into the pod while Jura and Hibiki crawled in after her. Meia gave them a small wave as the pod was ejected out into space. The last thing she heard was Barnette crying for her to be in here, rather then her.

"So, how much time do we have left?" Meia asked. No response. "Alex?" She turned to find him no where to be seen. "Where'd you go? Alex, where are you?" She asked, walking to the last spot she saw him in.

"Up here!" Meia looked up to see him on something. She couldn't see it too clearly since the lighting was beginning to flicker away. "Come on, we're leaving this place." He beckoned her. Meia blinked in surprise. They could still escape?

She didn't waste anytime as she jumped up to him. He quickly shoved her into an open hatch, jumping in after she was in. The hatch closed, and darkness overtook them. Meia closed her eyes, waiting for something to come up. She heard the sounds of whatever they were in coming to life. The buzzing noise soon stopped, and three popping sounds filled her ears.

"Meia, you can open your eyes." Alex whispered. "You can see outside this machine." She opened them up to see that she could. She glared at him, knowing that he knew something she had never truly admitted to anyone. She then looked down, and noticed they were in a mobile suit of some kind.

Alex pushed forward on the controls. The hanger doors opened up, slowly but surely. Alex pushed a few buttons, and the next thing they knew, they were flying out into space. The pod that held Jura, Hibiki and Barnette came into view not two seconds later, its thrusters taking it far away as fast as it could. Alex pressed a few more buttons, one activating a screen that showed what the machine looked like. It was all white, and Meia found it strange as a pair of yellow eyes lighting up. Alex drummed over a few more buttons, and the machine awoke, spreading beautiful angel wings. Meia then noticed the bright blue and white armor while a green core lay in the center of its chest.

Its wings fluttered to life, acting like bird wings as they flapped slightly, allowing it to do a back flip as it whisked the pod and them away, flapping its large wings in the process.

"This… this is something like the Freedom, isn't it?" Meia finally managed, captivated by the beautiful machine. "Is this its twin or something?"

"No, this is my first machine." Alex whispered, holding onto the controls tightly. The colony exploded behind them. "This is Wing Zero, the first machine I ever piloted." The sphere of death crashed into them.

(-)

"The colony has exploded." Celtic announced sadly. She, along with everyone on the bridge, and those watching the video feed of the colony, were in tears as no signs of life appeared. There was no escape pod to be seen on screen. No ship, no mobile suit, no nothing.

"They failed in getting back to us, but the succeeded in destroying the colony." Magno whispered. "I'm sure that God is taking care of them right now."

"I wish I could have seen them one last time." Dita cried. "I wish I could have seen Mr. Alien and Mr. Suit one last time." She cried, crashing to her knees as she began to cry.

"Captain, I think we're close enough that she might have actually heard you." Amarone gasped. Magno turned to the bridge bunny with confused eyes, as did everyone else. She pressed a button and an angel appeared on screen. "If I'm not mistaken, that's an angel. And angels' only appear when they come to take someone to a place of rest forever, correct?"

"I'm not an angel." Alex protested. Dita and everyone looked up as Alex's face and voice appeared on screen. Meia's form could barely be made out, and it was then that everyone saw the pod in its arms. "Mission Success." Alex announced, giving her a thumbs up.

Magno sat back in her chair, smiling as the machine appeared in front of the Nirvana, flapping its white wings for everyone to see. A small blue orb appeared on the bridge, scaring most of the people on it, though Dita just blinked and poked it, but only watched as her finger slipped through it.

"Please, desist in poking me." Maya said, scaring Dita this time. "I am truly sorry for frightening you, but I do not like being poked."

"Uh, Alex, explain this." BC demanded. Alex was laughing at this point.

"That's Maya." Meia said. "This is the AI that was inside the Colony, and since Protocol demands that the AI not be destroyed, it had to come with us."

"I see. So we now have an extra guest." Magno grinned, while a bemused Pyoro floated beside the blue mass. Parfait stared at it while Dita started chanting off question after question towards the floating AI.

(-)

The hanger was buzzing with action as the new machine walked in, still holding the life pod. Almost everyone was crammed in the hanger, just to see the team and the strange machine. Since it was slightly taller then the Freedom, and because they didn't have the proper gear to hold it up, it was forced to lie down, wings folded over its body, giving an almost old man sort of look to it.

The hatch opened up, and Meia and Alex walked out, standing on top of the chest. The first thing they noticed was the welcome home banners. The second thing they noticed was everyone staring at the new machine with wide eyes. It truly did look like an angel.

The duo hopped off the machine and walked over to a smiling Magno, blue mass that represented Maya, a smiling BC and a stunned looking Bart and Hibiki, and one gleefully looking Jura.

"So, care to explain how things went?" BC asked, turning her gaze back to Alex.

"No, not until I get a bath." Alex moaned. He took his helmet off and tossed it to Parfait who gave him a questioning look. "This suit is all used up, and is no good to me anymore. As soon as it gets washed, you can play with it, all you want." Parfait almost jumped for joy, while Pyoro simply wiped a bead of sweet from his head/face/screen.

"Alex," Magno motioned for him to come over. He did so, smiling behind his mask. She made sure that only he could hear what was said. "You have three hours to get ready to explain everything to the men and women. And I mean everything. They need to know the truth about what happened over Taraaku and your involvement on Mejarru." She walked away, leaving Alex to curse inside his head.

_Damn it!_

A/N

The Station fight is over and now Alex is permanently with them. The truth is revealed in the next chapter, so expect so small fights from the men. As always, Read, Review, and hope that I get another day off soon. My boss just lost my replacement driver since he had diabetes and has to have his feet cut off. Needless to say, updates will start getting short since I work at a feedlot.


	7. Truth, Lies and Manipulation

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 7 Truth Lies and Manipulation

Alex groaned. The shower wasn't helping any. Magno told him that he had three hours to get ready for the meeting, and all he had done was spend one hour in the shower, letting the water bounce off his body. He didn't want to do this, and he figured a shower would help clear his thoughts, but no such luck was insight for him at the moment.

He placed both hands on the purple tiles of the shower walls, letting his head drop so the water could hit his neck. He had to admit one thing, the armor always made his body sore and taking it off only made it worse. Despite his height in the armor, he actually was kind of small. He stood no taller than Meia or Barnette, and his body frame was almost the same as Hibiki's.

He sighed, shutting the water off as he stepped out. He sighed again as he picked up a pink towel. God these women sure were going to drive him nuts with all this pink crap. Seemed like every time he turned around, someone was clad in a pink towel, wearing bright pink clothing, or had pink hair, it just made his skin crawl. He hated the color for reasons that would die with him, unless they met his mother, then they would die with everyone on the ship since he would kill them all, along with his mother, if he could that is.

He sighed as he walked over to the table that his cloths were placed on. _I really need a new wardrobe._ Alex sighed, putting on his cloths. Once he was finished, he checked himself in the mirror, just to see if he was missing something. He glanced over his shoulder, his hand reaching for something, but grabbing nothing but air. He sighed again, knowing what was missing. He groaned inwardly, walking to the hanger to pick up the missing item.

He placed it in the black case he left with the Techs when they abandoned the station, so he knew where it was. He knew that it was safe guarded by a password, so he knew there was no way they could have opened it, so why worry? He searched through the hoard of crates before his eyes landed on the long black case. He grinned as he typed in the password.

The case hissed open, allowing Alex access to its contents. What lay inside was a single sword, odd as it was, it was rather shiny. A long silver case for a sheath lay neatly on a padded surface that made sure to keep the item safe. A black handle, engraved with thin purple lines that coursed through out the handle, all the way to up the dark blue fox head that lay closed around the sheath. Its burnt orange eye shinned brightly with the mixture of dark colors, giving the weapon an almost mystic sort of feel to it. Smiling, he attached the weapon to his back and stood up.

"Mr. Suit?"

Alex turned around, giving Dita an odd look. Dita was scanning him at the moment. She walked over to him, compared her height to his, and blinked in surprise. Alex groaned as he said, "It's the armor that makes me look taller," while walking away.

"It's not that, Mr. Suit." Dita spun around and Alex turned with a brow raised. "It's just that, I've never seen you without your suit." She motioned his new attire. Alex looked down at himself as he raised his other brow. "You look… different. That's all."

He did look different. Maybe it was a good thing, though. Since the skin on his arms was now visible, she could see his skin was tanned in color. He wore a fishnet long sleeved shirt to make this possible. His mask was still on, but now silver in color. His chest and shoulders were both covered by a white loose fit V muscle shirt that showed the fishnet shirt ended around his collar bone area. A golden fox head with red flames around it was tattooed to his right shoulder, and no bigger than an average fist. Around both wrists were wrist guards, silver in color while a pair of blue fingerless gloves with red flames protected his hands. A pair of baggy blue loose fit pants was his choice of ware for his legs, while a pair of grey shin guards tightened the bottom of his pants together. He chose to wear white cowboy boots, giving the odd appearance before Dita.

"You look… strange, that's all." She repeated. Alex sighed as he walked off with Dita in hot pursuit. "So… what 'cha doing now, Mr. Suit?"

"I… I have to talk to everyone about something really bad." Alex stopped in the corridor, staring out at the strange stars outside the ship. He didn't want to explain what took place five years ago, but now, now he had no choice in the matter. "Dita… what do you know about the incident over Taraaku?" It was an odd question. It wasn't something that she really wasn't expecting from him, or the sad outlook he had at the moment.

"Well… I… uh… I know that…"

"Never mind." Alex interrupted her, slowly walking down the hallway. He had no real destination in mind, but with Dita talking to him about what she knew, they somehow ended up in the Bio Garden. Alex sat down, staring at the stars, searching for some kind of an answer to his dilemma.

"That's about all I know, Mr. Suit." Dita finished. Alex groaned. She didn't know shit about what happened. Even she had been lied to. This was going to suck, and on so many levels.

"Dita, would you be angry if I caused it?" Alex questioned; his eyes still fixated on the stars. They twinkled, as if to tell him he was doing the right thing. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"I don't know, I'm not the kind of person to hold a grudge, and I don't stay mad for very long." She admitted, playing with some dirt. "Why do you ask?" She turned to face him, eyes scanning him for some kind of an answer.

"I've been asked to do something that I don't want to do. But in order for you to trust me, I guess I need to do it." Alex stood up, walking over to his companion and offering his hand. Dita took it, and was slowly lifted up. "I think its about to start, and this will take sometime. So, I think you should be smart and go get yourself and _Mr. Alien _some snacks." Dita smiled and ran off, searching for something to eat.

"How long have you been there?" Alex turned to a tree. A smile was hidden by his mask, watching as Meia came out holding a piece of paper. She shoved it into his chest, eyes trying to find some kind of an answer to her question.

"I can't go to the Captain over something like this." She told him, turning her head slightly. "I found this in your room, and I thought you should read it." She gave him a sad expression that he quickly caught.

Alex opened it, scanning the contents. His eyes seemed to lighten up at one point, while they began to glaze over at another. Meia had a feeling he was either mad at her, or would just act like a moron and shrug it off or something like that. His eyes returned to normal as he lowered the letter or confession that he was reading. He didn't know what to say. He was alone and there was no one he could run to, to cry. He had only himself. He sighed and pocketed the letter, his eyes watering up.

_He's… going to cry for her? _

"That's the second child I've lost now." Meia went wide eyed at this. There was another child, and he let it down? "I guess I'm not meant to find happiness then." He cried to himself, his hand turning into a fist. His grip was so tight that it drew blood. "I… I really am a failure I guess." He turned away from Meia, either to not let her see him cry, or just because he didn't want to look at her.

Meia bit her bottom lip, not knowing what to do. She had never had to do this sort of thing with a man. She didn't know what to say, or do for that matter. All she knew how to do was hugging them and let them cry. Slowly, she reached out, her arms lassoing around his waist. He spun around and hugged her, crying into her shoulder over his loss. Meia cringed slightly over having to do this, but he saved her, and this was her only way of showing him she at least cared for that much. She breathed slowly as she patted his back. He stopped abruptly, releasing his grip and staring at her. Meia just blinked. He stopped?

"When did you find it?" He almost sounded mad. Meia bit her lip again, not knowing what to say really. If she had given it to him before they left, he would have surely wanted death and they wouldn't have gotten off.

"When you were setting the detonation sequence." She admitted. Alex fell to his knees. He knew why she kept it from him now. She only did it to survive. "I'm sorry, but I figured that you would have not been able to get us to the hanger to help us escape."

"You're right, I wouldn't have helped you." Alex told her, sitting down and wiping his tears away. "I would have just given you directions and hoped for the best."

"I'm sorry for robbing you of that, but we needed to survive and…"

"You did the right thing, Meia." Alex stood up, staring at the small streams of blood that dripped from his fingers. "Thanks." He muttered.

"For what?"

"For letting me cry on your shoulder. I can't actually see that being an easy thing for you." He told her, turning his gaze back to her. "Meia, if I was the problem for what happened to your family, would you hate me?" Meia arched a brow.

"I'd kill you. Why?"

"Even if the men are the ones responsible, you'd still hate me?"

"I guess it would depend on the involvement, but why do you ask?" She gave him an odd look. It was one he had never truly seen. He couldn't read it, but he had a feeling she wanted to know his reasons, and anything he knew. He just stared at her, trying to figure it out.

"We're back!" Dita cried, dragging a happy Hibiki behind her. He was only happy because he was stuffing his face with her cooking. "Oh, Leader, I didn't know you were coming too." Meia blinked in surprise.

"I've been ordered to explain the incidents that happened on Taraaku, over Taraaku space, and what we left for Mejarru, for their kindness they showed us." Alex told her. Meia blinked in surprise again. Hibiki spat his food out, glaring at Alex. Dita did her Blink-Blink-Blink moment when something this confusing came up.

"What do you mean by that?!" Hibiki snarled, running up to punch Alex. Alex caught the attack, and Hibiki received a fist to his gut, knocking the wind out of him. "What do you mean by that? There's only one story to it." Hibiki began gasping for air. The crew began to show up. Each one staring at the scene before them. "You and that damn Red Demon machine attacked Taraaku and killed everyone!"

"You started it." Hibiki looked up into Alex's eyes, eyes that were full of tears. His face was contorted in pain as something began to eat away at his mind. Something he had hoped to push from his mind forever. But now, now he was going to rip down the very wall he placed over the memory.

(-)

Thump, thump, thump

Alex had been drumming his fingers across the tree trunk for about ten minutes now. The crew of the Nirvana all stood/sat patiently, waiting for what ever was about to be talked about. Alex didn't seem to care really though. The crew watched his expressions, through his eyes of course since his mask was still on, change from one of sadness to one of shock, all the way to one of happiness, and then they would glaze over. This process continued for a few minutes, before he would sigh, and then repeat the process.

"You just going to sit there and drum your fingers all day?" Hibiki groaned. Alex glared at him before returning to his current sad expression. Hibiki groaned again, going back to his evil stare on the black haired boy. Hibiki had half a mind to just hit him again, or try, but his other half was reminding him that he had easily caught his attack and effortlessly sent him packing.

Alex sighed, looked up at the women and three men before him before looking down at the ground again. "What do you know about the incident over, and on Taraaku space?" Alex finally asked. He looked up with not so surprised eyes as Hibiki and Bart glared at him. A hand was raised in the back. "Yes, blonde." Alex pointed to the raised hand.

Jura lowered her hand, giving Alex an odd glance, but answered his question. "We know that it somehow involved a large convoy that came to Taraaku. What happened is a little sketchy, but we know that it began with a large scale attack that crippled their forces greatly. There was also at one time a large station above the planet, but it was said that one machine with an odd weapon destroyed it with a single shot."

Alex laughed. "You're the first person who has come close enough to getting that right." Alex continued to chuckle. "Since you're the first to come this close enough to getting it right, I'll tell you how it began." Everyone blinked in surprise. "But… before that. You're going to learn the incidents that gave way to our machines. But to do that, we have to go back to the planet we colonized."

"When my fathers' people left Earth, they, and two other Colony Ships, came across a world that was like a tropical paradise. The planet was in some way, like Earth. The planet had tropical forests like Earth, had the same oceans that could go as far as the eye could see, and even had deserts like that on Earth." Alex smiled, before continuing. "The planet was strange in one way. There was one thing that bugged everyone."

"The planet, which we named, Scion, never rained. It was something that bugged everyone. For the ten months they were there, it never once rained; something that truly bugged them. They soon came up with a theory that was proven correct after just one year. They theorized this on the grounds that the planet was such a tropical paradise that it must rain at least one time in the year. Eventually, they're theory was proven right. At the beginning of summer, it rained for a solid weak. After two years, it was a proven fact. At the beginning of every summer, it would rain for one solid weak like Cats and Dogs."

"Most people theorized that the plant life and soil must have had some kind of enzyme or mineral that would allow it to survive so long without water unless they were near the oceans or lakes. After three years, the people, mostly the teenagers, began to get sick and die. No one knew why, but most people speculated that it was either the food we brought with us, but a few others thought it was somehow connected to the planets' strange weather pattern."

"After a one year, something happened. A scientist found the reason. It was something that no one could believe. It involved the rain. When ever it rained, it rained in a strange way. Since most weather systems run along a water current that use ocean water, and pure water, like that of ice on the north and south poles on Earth. This one was controlled by the atmosphere of the world. It was there that the problem appeared. The atmosphere of the planet was toxic." Everyone gasped. "The planets' atmosphere proved a problem to them. It became clear that there was no way for them to survive on the world, since no living creature could survive the rain season." 

"But then how did your people survive?" Barnette asked.

"We moved to colonies that we began to make in space. But that took three years to make possible. But during that time, a few scientists began thinking of a way to save what lives they could. They hoped to make it possible for people to survive on the planet, but they failed in their attempts, but they found a way that they never thought possible. They found it in a small group of animals that seemed to survive every rain season. When they examined the animal, they found an amazing thing. The creature was immune to the poison, because of a special chemical in their bodies. The scientists then began trying to find a way to give it out as an antidote, but that plan failed."

"After two more years, the colonies began to take on the civilians living on the planet. Slowly but surely they moved to them. The people were thrilled to be away from the planet that robbed them of their children, loved ones, and friends. But for those that stayed, they were forced to deal with the rain season. With each new season, a little more of my people were washed away. But for those that stayed, they also began to explore new options given to them by the scientists. A group of people were selected for a procedure that they hoped would save them. They succeeded. The plan worked, and the new lives that were used for the procedure were immune to the poison."

"What kind of cure was it?" Duerro asked, raising a hand to his chin.

"In order to make such a feat possible, the process had to be done when the child was still in the womb. This process was viewed with mixed feelings. Some people viewed it as an act against God, while others cared very little to the beliefs that those people believed in. In fact, more people believed that what they did was for the greater good. Was it so wrong for making sure that life continued on? Those that hated this idea quickly changed their views. They watched as the children that were genetically altered, survived the rain. They watched as they played in the rain, unaffected by the poison that was in each drop. They eventually gave into the idea of altering their children's DNA."

"Those on the colonies sided with them not soon after, hoping to make sure that their existence continued on. At first, they viewed it as an act against God, but even they considered that it made since in the end. They too began altering their children's DNA, just incase they went down to the planet."

"Eight years before I was born, something took place that would lead to a moment in time that would never be forgotten. We were known as peacemakers. People that went around and searched for our ancestors in hopes of making peace with those that had colonized worlds beyond our own. We found lots of people that were overjoyed to see others that had adapted to their new worlds just as they had. Some people found worlds that gave way to new machines, alloys, minerals, and even new ways to alter the children into stronger, faster, and smarter children."

"One day we found a planet that's people were hostile to everyone that came around them. We made contact with them, and they at first treated us like old friends. We asked for an alliance, and they… started a war." Everyone was in utter belief over this. "They had a Ruler that was suffering from a sever case of paranoia. He believed that treaties and alliances were only made for the purpose of making the enemy lower their guard. He, in some way, was right… if you think about it from his point of view anyway."

"I guess that makes sense, in some way anyway." BC commented.

Alex nodded before continuing his story that everyone seemed to be memorized with. "We thought the war would be over in a few months. We had greater numbers then them, and as such, we believed we would win. However, what we thought was wrong. We were way off! We only had machines similar to your Dreads, while they had machines like Van-types. They, were winning the war. They had better pilots, while we had more pilots." Alex licked his lips, though hidden by his mask, as he smiled. "There's a military term that remains true to this day. Quantity over quality is never a good thing, quality over quantity, is a better thing."

"Meia, you said we have about fifty fighters on this ship, correct?" Alex pointed to her. Meia nodded in response while Dita and Jura gave him a strange look. "And would you say that we don't have the quantity as a true military battle ship, but we have better fighters, yes?" Alex once again received a nod in response to his question.

"They had the ability to do things that we never dreamed of. They could pilot machines in ways we never imagined. They could use them as a mere extension of their own body. They maneuvered them in a way that almost seemed like the flow of water. We, however, never truly stood a chance. Three years into the war however, we were able to begin construction on our own version of their machines. We called them Strike Daggers. At first they were able to surprise the enemy and allow us quick victories, but, they designed something that was, truly amazing."

"Among the bodies of fallen soldiers, one survived an attack that was strange in nature. He stuttered and became insane with fear at what he saw. He saw five machines that took no damage during their assault on one of our strongholds. They never were touched by a machinegun round, missile or even a simple mech blade. They destroyed an entire station within five minutes. They killed one thousand two hundred thirty-six mechs without being touched." Everyone was now wide eyed at this. "The government didn't know what to do about them as they appeared on the battlefield and left nothing more than death and chaos in their wake. They were never touched until two years into their grand appearance."

"Six years before I was born, the military began getting desperate and created five machines with the hopes of countering them and their abilities. The machines we created were the Buster, Blitz, Duel, Strike, and the Aegis. I only know one of pilots, and that's the Aegis pilot. His name was David R. Switchfoot. He was one of the best pilots in the fleet, and had a strange ability to appear out of nowhere and save the day."

"Since each machine was designed to counter the strange five machines that continued their rampage over our forces. The first machine to engage their _Double_, so to speak, was the Buster. Its machine it was forced to fight was the one machine that was the only true long range fighter in their force. It was a machine called, Heavyarms. This machine was in all aspects, a walking arsenal. Its' entire body was a weapon. Mounted with machine guns, micro missiles, heat seeking missiles, and a pair of Double Banded held Gattling Guns."

"The fight lasted for thirty minutes before a victor was finally determined. The Heavyarms came out on top. It beat one of our best attempts at an advanced machine without taking a single hit. It walked away unscratched and unfazed by the new machine."

"How come the pilot was so good in it?" Barnette blurted.

"He was only able to win because he had more battle experience than what the Buster's pilot did. He was also a smarter person than the Buster's pilot." Alex told her, walking over to a tree. He glanced up into it, and then jumped up to the lowest branch to perch on.

"The next machine to meet its _Double_, was the Strike. The Strike featured exchangeable packs that would allow it to fight with different weapons. The pilot however always stuck with her Sword Pack. She loved that mode, claming she felt stronger when she used it. Her machine appeared one day just out of the blue, as always. The machine she was forced to fight was Nataku, or Altron as its original name was called by the woman who made it. The fight only lasted for thirty seconds." Alex laughed as began hanging from his legs on the tree. "The fight was over in thirty seconds, and the people who made the Strike could only curse loudly at the death of their second machine destroyed."

"How did it beat the machine in thirty seconds?" Jura gasped.

"It has a set of Dragon Tentacles as our people called it. The pilot simply launched one and clamped down on the machine, biting it in half and watching as the machine exploded into tiny pieces. I believe it was at this point that my people began to grow into despair with this new development they found themselves in." Alex laughed again as he dropped to his feet and hopped over to a nearby bench that Dita was sitting on.

"The next machine to fall actually lasted longer than the Strike, but it was able to damage its opponent, unlike the first two. The machine was called Duel and its opponent was Sandrock. This machine was without a doubt, the better of the three close range fighters. The fight lasted for one hour and ten minutes. The pilot of the Duel was lucky that she was near one of our bases at the time, since she continually ran out of power. Eventually, the machine was destroyed, but not before the pilot took off both arms with its beam blades. This brought hope to my people since nothing like that had ever happened." Alex smiled as he walked over to Barnette and Jura.

"The next machine to fall was the Blitz. Its opponent was the second most feared machine on their force. Its opponent was DeathScythe, a machine that was virtually undetectable by our forces. Its beam scythe was the strangest weapon we had ever seen, but its pilot proved that it could use it very affectively in combat. When the two met, the fight lasted for only two minutes, and its pilot survived as the pilot jammed his scythe into his cockpit, cutting into his gut. He managed to detonate his machine, hoping to kill the other. His sacrifice however, was in vain. The machine walked away without a scratch on it."

"So only one machine had been damaged out of these fights?" Parfait asked; her eyes wide, but hidden by her glasses.

"Yep, and the story doesn't end there." Alex walked over to Meia, took a seat, and looked up at her with a brow raised. "The next machine to find its opponent was my fathers' machine, the Aegis. My father found his waiting for him in a mountain area. The machine was named Wing Zero." Meia gasped and looked down at Alex. "The pilot, was the most feared in the force, not because of its ability to transform into a Bird Mode as their people called it, but because of its' single most powerful weapon, the Buster Rifle, and despite its name, was the most powerful weapon we had ever seen. My father fought the machine for fifteen minutes, and eventually lost. His machine was beaten, and not once did the pilot resort to using the deadly weapon."

"Wait, how is that you have the Wing Zero then?" Meia questioned, giving him a strange look.

"Exactly two years before I was born, my father was given a new machine."

"Wait, you said he fell in battle." Hibiki protested.

"I said the Aegis was destroyed, not my father. He was the only pilot that was capable of fighting the five machines. They were once again on a rampage and this time, they were not taking any chances with our forces. So my father received a new machine, something they hoped would counter all five machines. He was given Epyon, a red machine that was supposedly a twin of the Wing Zero." A single tear slid down Alex's face as he spoke those words. "My father was given; one final mission and he accepted it."

Alex stopped this time, and just stared out into space. He looked at the stars with glazed over eyes. Meia blinked as she looked at the spot where she thought he was looking.

"Before my father went on this mission, he was given as much time he deemed needed, to rest, relax, and among other things, remember why he was fighting. My father was like me, in that he loved forests. It was here, that he met my mother." He looked down at Meia with a slight smile. "My father told me that she was… a Goddess. Her beauty was breath taking." He smirked. "He asked her for her name, and she shyly told him. Her name was Royal Asaugi."

"Whether by sheer luck or just fate, he continued to find her in the same spot of the forest for five months. They talked about their lives, their outlook on the war, but my father did not once talk about his life in the military. He never once mentioned it to her. At the end of the six months he had been seeing her, he asked her to marry him. She accepted, but told him she had to do something with her family, saying that she would tell them, while he told his. It was at this time, that my father had to carry out his mission. He hated doing what he did, asking for her to marry him when he figured that his last mission would lead him to death, and leave her without a husband."

"So he met your mother in a forest and proposed in the very same one?" Amarone asked. Alex nodded and the bridge bunny squealed with delight. She obviously figured that since Alex was alive, that meant that he succeeded in his mission and married the woman of his dreams.

"When my father went to meet the enemy, he was ready. The first one he found was Heavyarms. He was able to survive the battle with the dark green/gray machine without taking a single scratch. The pilot of the machine became furious and was about to detonate the machine in order to eliminate my father. But fate was on his side as Sandrock appeared; ready to aid its friend. Sandrock too was beaten, but not destroyed. The machine had lost both its weapons and its arms were once again destroyed. Both pilots decided to detonate, but once again, fate had something else in mind as Nataku appeared, ready to save the day."

"When the fighting began, my father already knew that he had gotten lucky, and wasn't about to get cocky. He took some minor damage, but in the end, he beat Nataku without destroying the machine. This time, the three pilots waited, rather than take the chances with detonation, and it paid off as DeathScythe appeared, swinging its large scythe in an attempt to split my father in two. The fight went on for twenty minutes before my father got lucky and destroyed the head, arms, and legs of the machine. At this point, my father was tired, and worn out. He still had the machine that beat him to deal with."

"It soon appeared, firing a wave of bullets down onto the forest floor they fought over. The fight went on for hours before the pilot pulled out its twin buster rifle, and fired it. My father did something that no one else had done on this day. He dodged the attack and went in for the kill. He missed. But his attack still hit something. He hit the hatch and revealed the pilot for the first time."

"The pilot was awake and pissed that the machine had suffered such damage. Growling loudly, the pilot pulled off the helmet that shielded its face, and showed that he was a she. My father stared at the figure through his screens, turning his magnification to its limits, just to see the pilots' face. What he saw, I guess wasn't so surprising. He saw my mother." Everyone now gasped. "My mother was the pilot for the machine called Wing Zero, and he had proposed to her just two days ago. Ironic was the word I used, while father just said he simply slammed his head on the panel of his machine. It was an odd twist that he didn't see coming, and I have to say, I didn't either."

"My mother, angered by her loss, readied her weapon one last time, hoping to end his life. She wasn't counting on him opening the hatch and showing his face to her. When she saw his face, she lowered her weapon, and cried for the first time in what she said was a long time. She, along with the other four pilots, that were soon revealed to be her only family, came out and greeted him. My father said that it was a dilemma that needed to be solved, and quickly."

"The pilot for Heavyarms, Ice Man as I call him, came up with one. He suggested that they band together, hoping to show both sides that they can get along. My father quickly agreed to this, hoping that my mother would to. She did, and they announced that they would disband from the military to fight against their own worlds without killing anymore soldiers."

"Wait, your mother and father were enemies, and they came together just for peace?" Hibiki asked, staring blankly at Dita.

"Yep, they came together hoping to show the two worlds that they could live in peace. They succeeded. It took them a full two years to do so, and as the records show, the war was ended nine months earlier than what the news reports say. Small arms fights were the main reason for this. Those were people that had yet to hear the news."

"Three months after the war, officially ended, as they say on the reports, my parents got married, in one hell of an odd fashion, if I do say so myself. My mother walked out to the wedding chapel, clad in her flight suit, and for good reasons. She piloted the Wing Zero directly to her own wedding which we've got pictures of. My dad was just as strange. He appeared in the same suit, and even brought Epyon as his mode of transportation. What made it even funnier was that her family appeared in their machines as well, bringing quite a bit of fear, and laughter as they walked out in tuxes and white dresses. The wedding was a moment for us all to enjoy. It represented a turning point in our history. We became allies after a new leader was selected and began exploring again; brining peace and opening up treaties with far away planets."

"Six months later, I was born, and my mother had gone through one special surgery to make sure I would be immune to my planets' rain and another special benefit from her planet. They altered my DNA, to make me like my mother. They made me a Super Soldier as they called it, but my mother referred to me as a Special Boy. Super Soldiers were what my mother, and her family, was. That's why they could do the things they could do, and that's why I can do the things I can do. I went through the same procedure to make sure I could adapt to both my world, and my mothers' world, for peace."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Duerro questioned. "I've seen you fight, and what you do isn't very special to me. I mean you no ill status when I say that however."

"I understand what you mean Duerro, but you don't know how shitty my fathers' military was back then, and since I was trained by my mother and father, that makes me a pretty damn good fighter." Hibiki cocked a brow at this. "Okay look, in that last fight, the one on the station, didn't you find it odd that I survive that fall?" Dita looked at him in utter disbelief. Meia and Jura both nodded while Barnette just shrugged. "A normal soldier would have died from that height. I was five stories in the air when I dropped that machine and I was able to time it just right. I cut that thing free ten seconds before it smashed them. No ordinary soldier could do that, since they have to take in all aspects of the surrounding area, what the enemy might do, and they have to make sure that they can survive the fall. Those first two are easy to get, but the third is impossible. Not even my father could do something like that."

"Anyways, back to the story." Alex said, coughing as he got back on track. "Anyways, I was "Enhanced" for the meaning of peace. I was the first child from my fathers' world to undergo the procedure to make me who I am today." Alex motioned himself with a smile that was visible since his mask was down for the second time since he had been on the ship. "Ever since, we've held this peace treaty and lived happily ever since."

"So what happened over Taraaku then?" Dita questioned, handing him another cookie. Alex smiled and took the cookie with a smile.

"That is what were about to get to, but we have to go to the day I met her." Alex frowned at this. "I was fourteen years old, and I had been invited with my family to attend a Christmas party on one of military stations that would soon be the main place I would be before Taraaku." Alex chuckled at something. "When we got there, I was greeted with a mixture of smiles, odd expressions, and people whispering things along the lines of "It's him", "He's the reason the war ended", "Can you believe he's single", and my favorite "My daughter is going to marry him, I hope"." Alex began laughing hysterical.

"Those peoples' stupidity aside, I really had no real will to actually get involved with anyone at the time. I figured the media would pounce on them as they did me for the first eight years of my life. I found an escape route to this though, and it involved waving the gun around. Actually worked until they realized that I'd never shoot them, then I had to come up with another way." Meia and a few others blinked at him. He didn't like the media? "Anyways, back to the party."

"I sat alone, as usual since I didn't like to dance until everyone was at a point when they wouldn't remember what took place. My parents say I'm a good dancer and ask me why I don't like it. I would smile and tell them that I was shy, or that I didn't feel like it, or that I was full and one wrong step would send my food flying out of my mouth faster than dad when he broke mom's vase. Needless to say, I never like dancing. But this time, I had to dance. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to."

"This is where the incident sort of begins." The crew began to listen to every detail of this part. "She was… a living doll in my eyes." The crew looked at him with stunned eyes. Obviously, they were expecting something else. "She stood on the other side of the dance floor, hands neatly folded on her lap, a sly grin on her face, and a smile so bright that I swear could make the sun smile. She was Goddess of beauty in my eyes." Alex had a faraway look in his eyes at this point. "My father, half drunk and almost half asleep, somehow managed to catch my thing of beauty that I had been watching for the past hour. I was that damn shy."

"Wait, how does this pertain to what happened over Taraaku?" Gascgone asked, rubbing her temples. "You found someone, big whop, but what does she have to do with this?"

"She's the reason I went postal." Alex stated, frowning as he spoke. "But we're skipping a few scenes, my deer stagehand." Gascgone smirked at his choice of words. "I'm the director, not you." Gascgone smiled and raised her hands in defeat. "My father, whether on purpose or by accident, pushed me to the dance floor, and I stumbled through the crowd, gracefully landing at her feet. She blushed at my appearance, and said that she couldn't believe that a man like me would fall to her feet. I snorted, picked up myself and glared at her for a minute. She just smiled, grabbed my hand, and we danced for hours. I know this, because my mother got it all on tape, though the camera moves around a lot since she was really drunk."

"At the end of the party, we went our separate ways with only the memory of what took place floating in our minds. I didn't think I'd see her again, but I did. I found her at my school and giving me the finger for some reason. She punched me and screamed at me for some reason. When I asked for her reasons, she said it was because I didn't get her phone number." The women all began cracking up over this while the three Taraaku boys' tried to figure it out. "She was, in all honesty, a flat out bitch when it came to real life situations and a real princess when you got her away from everyone's view. It drove me insane. I found out three weeks later, that she was a part of our military. This was when I became Wing Zero's pilot. My mother had to embarrass me by taking my photo of me standing on the machine, a helmet in hand a large smile on my face."

"When I found her on the station, I was a bit surprised that she was going to be replacing my father as Epyon's pilot, but thought nothing of it. Even though the war was over, we still made weapons of war, just incase another hostile planet was found. After one year of being with that crazy woman, I finally gave in to my feelings and asked her to be with me, forever." Alex stood up, stretching his back as he walked over to Magno. "Now, during that time, I had never once beaten her in the simulator, because my father said it would impress her. My ass. She constantly would throw in my face and talk about it at school. But, I still asked her out, and she told me that she would only do so if I could beat her in the simulator. I believe the words she used were something along the lines of "You shit canned me in five seconds" or something like that. I simply pulled out the Buster Rifle and shot her. She was my girlfriend until the day we would decide to split."

"Now something like this wouldn't go without someone having to watch, and as fate would have it, it had to be our parents since they became really close. When the fight was over, we got out, she walked over to me, slapped me once, I asked her what her problem was, she slapped me again, I told her I won, and then she kissed me. And yes Magno, my mother has it all on tape!" Alex growled, staring at the smiling old lady.

"This is where everything takes place." Alex took a deep breath. "Exactly four days before the incident on Taraaku, and over it, I was looking for her, but I couldn't find her. We, along with my parents and my mother's family, were all on board a ship called the Eternal. My father had taken up the Freedom at this point, while my mother took up the Justice. When I found her, she was laying on her bed, staring at something. I couldn't place it, until I walked into her room. She looked over at me and smiled. It wasn't one of those sadistic smiles I often received from her. It was one of joy. She told me something that would change my life forever."

"Exactly two months prier to the incident, my family had a large party to celebrate our new alliance with another planet. As always, we were seen together, holding hands, kissing when in the hallway away from the others, and eating alone outside. This time however, something happened. I don't know how it got started, but I know how it ended. The night became a blur, and all I could remember was hearing her moaning. When morning came, I found out that my "Dream" was actually what we did that night. We professed our love for one another."

"You what?" Paiway asked, writing in her notebook. Alex groaned as the little nurse began taking more notes.

"We made love." _Dear God please don't make me explain this next part. _Alex screamed in his head. Paiway finished taking her notes and motioned for him to continue. "I found out that what she was looking at was some test results and some photos. I found out, that she was pregnant." The bridge bunnies squealed in delight before blinking and giving him an odd look. "For the sake of all that you hold dear, I won't be explaining that." They gave him a quick nod, not truly wanting to hear how that happened. "She told me that it was because of the party and said that she was going to keep it. She was worried that I would deny that it was mine, but she was surprised to see me crash to my knees and hug her stomach. For once, I was truly happy. I was going to be a father."

"But you were only sixteen if not seventeen." Parfait pointed out. "Unless your laws say you can marry at that age or even have a kid, that's not possible."

"Actually, you're right, we couldn't get married until over the age of twenty one, but my mother was eighteen when she got married. The man that presided over the wedding asked her if she was and she said yes, because she was standing over the number twenty one that she wrote on a piece of paper and slipped into her shoe. Only those of her family knew how old she was, and my father was twenty one at the time, so he was legal." Parfait shook her head at the ways around such odd laws.

"Anyways, for the next two days, we tried to figure out how to break the news to our families. For me, it would be pretty simple. My dad told me that he would never yell at me unless I blew something up, or burned down the house. Mother was the same way, though she told me that if I broke anything in the house, she'd kill me. Her family was the main problem, and something we didn't want to deal with. Her father would murder her, while her mother would probably have skinned her. But in the end, I never had to tell anyone, except till now."

"I decided to do the right thing, and proposed to her. That necklace you took from me was the very item I gave to her as a proposal gift." At this, a few of the women seemed to look at him with a new sense of awe, while a few others seemed to stare down at the ground in shame. "She happily accepted it, and asked me how we were going to deal with this problem. I told her we'd take it one step at a time, which earned me, a very strong punch to the gut."

"When we arrived at Taraaku, things seemed pretty normal for the most part. The second convoy had made contact with Mejarru and they happily accepted them. We brought gifts for both worlds, though unaware of the war you were currently fighting." Alex looked down at Hibiki, eyes full of rage. "We were accepted the same way, only there was one small problem. We were unaware of the war. When we landed on the station that once existed, a man with no hair and a dorky looking mustache, shot my mother." The women all gasped while the men stared at him. "This is what truly happened over Taraaku and on it."

"Yeah right, you're just trying to pin the blame on someone else, Demon." Hibiki and Bart snarled. Alex sent both men a glare that would have had even Meia backing away in fear. His glare could probably put a dead man in his place with those iced over blue eyes.

"That man, said we had been tricked by the women, saying that they were our sworn enemy. I was about to kill the man where he stood for even saying such things, but my father disarmed the man and asked why he would do such a thing to those that come from far away only to make peace. The man said that he would be damned before he ever signed a treaty with women. My father then scooped my mother up, and we left, disabling their units as we left."

"No!" Bart yelled. Alex sent him the same glare, but this time Bart stood his ground. "You came over with a convoy full of explosives and detonated them on the station, destroying it and hundreds of our soldiers!" He protested.

"Bart, you would do well to hold you tongue, unless you wished it cut out!" Alex roared, pulling his sword from its sheath. Bart glared at him, as if to egg him on. Alex's eyes widen as he began moving faster than what Bart first thought. Bart instantly felt pain in his left arm as Alex jammed the blade through his arm. "Bart, I have watched millions of people die! Watching you die will be one of the greatest sights I'll ever behold!" Alex kicked him away, while Hibiki appeared from behind, hoping to knock Alex off his feet. Hibiki spun around as Alex jumped over his attack, and charged him, hoping to inflict some damage. Alex stepped on his foot that was about to snap out and kick him, and punched him as hard as he could in the face, sending him skidding backwards on the ground. "I will not be so lineate next time, asshole." Alex sheathed his weapon.

"Mr. Alien!" Dita cried, running to her friends' side. "Mr. Suit, why would you do that?" She was crying over him. She was crying for a man that ended his happiness.

"Because it was his people that helped in burning away my humanity. I have only now begun to regain what I lost on that day." He whispered. Those that were close enough to hear it looked at Alex with a new sense of emotions. He had no humanity left in him. That was what made him so cold hearted and explained his undying hatred for the three. "When we left for the second convoy, the soldiers from Taraaku began trying to kill us. My father ordered us not to kill them, and as such, we didn't, or at least not until I lost her anyways."

"What Bart and Hibiki call me is in fact what I became on that day. I became a demon at heart. All it took was one shot to attain that title." Alex gave a sad smile as tears began to slide down his face. "You took her from me. You took my child from me. You stole everything that made me, me." Alex looked over at Meia with sad eyes. Meia saw it, but was puzzled by the look. "Despite my parents' cries for me to not fire the new Twin Buster Rifle, I fired it anyways. My target was the Taraaku military station. With one shot and the one memory of happiness flashing through my mind, I pulled the trigger and watched as your military station was destroyed by my hands. I hated you all for robbing me of my happiness, but after the fight, I realized what my father had been trying to teach me. I learned a hard lesson because of that incident." Alex sat down, his eyes downcast. "I learned that a life for a life doesn't bring them back."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Ezra said, walking over to him, eyes full of sadness. Alex didn't divert his gaze as she hugged him. He was able to give her one back, though it was weak and almost holding no signs of life. Ezra released him and smiled as he looked up with at least some life in his eyes.

"After I fired the weapon and destroyed the station, the men left. We picked up what remained of Epyon, and then ran towards the second convoy. When we arrived, we were then informed that Taraaku was trying to wage war with Mejarru. We found it odd that they were _trying_. Regardless, we realized that we still had the gifts we were going to give Taraaku so they could speed up the development of their world, since it looked like nothing more than a wasteland. So, it was decided after our mothers' operation that we would give it to the Mejarru women for being so kind to us. We even signed a secret treaty with them, promising to come back and help out in the development of their world. But the people we sent to do so, never made it past the Taraaku forces."

"Ha, so you were working with the women after all!" Bart said, pointing a finger at Alex. "Looks like we right after all, meaning that all you're doing is trying to fill our heads with garbage!"

"Listen here, jackass!" Alex roared, glaring at Bart. The women all shuddered under the tone in his voice. Some even went so far as to back away from him. "What I speak is the truth; not that cover up bullshit they told you! If you had listened to us and treated us with respect, you might not even be in this mess you're in now!" Bart gulped as Alex drew his blade again. "I told you once already, I speak the truth. I will not have you deny what is being said to you. If you do not open your eyes to it, then I will show it to you, in HELL!" Alex licked the blade, an evil glint in his eyes. His eyes had retained that bloodlust look that Barnette and the others that went to the colony saw again. "I will not hesitate to kill you. I have killed millions of people in my life because of peace. Its people like me that are talked about at night. My team and I only appear in the shadows of the darkness during the night, to rid the universe of all evil!"

"You don't understand anything, because you're a coward that hides behind those stronger than you!" Alex continued his tirade, bringing fear to the three men's eyes. "I've killed more people in my lifetime then you will ever know about. You've never taken a life, nor have you had to watch their eyes glaze over as they slip into the shadows. You don't know what its like to sleep, knowing that you might not wake up. All you three know is that the enemy is whoever your leader points a finger at!" Alex sheathed his blade, storming past a now terrified Paiway. "I've killed men, women… and even children for the sake of peace."

"And you will continue to do so, until you die?" Magno questioned, walking up to him. "It was a difficult life for you, but I see that not even time can heal all wounds, eh Alex?" Alex smiled, but not his fighting smile that had never been seen, courtesy of his mask or helmet. This one was full of kindness and warmth, something rarely ever seen.

"All for the sake of peace?" Paiway whispered. "You've killed children, just for that?!" Alex nodded; a sad smile on his face. "Why would you kill children for that?!"

"Because they were evil people that sauté to destroy us." Alex turned to Paiway, a half smile half thinking expression on his face. "On my world, peace was believed to be attained by three ways. I believe in only one. The first is to throwaway weapons and confine soldiers. I don't believe in that one. The second is to kill every last one of your enemies. I don't believe in that one either. The last is to do it through talk, but no one wants to listen anymore. I still believe in this method though. I know that talk is cheap and action is more affective, but when you think about it from a different stand point, you see that what you do is wrong. What you're doing is being the ultimate thief. You steal a person's very life when you become a dog of war."

"It wasn't until a special force was created and trained to do the things like my father, but I'm not going to talk about that." Alex stood up, dusted his pants and hopped back into his tree. "When we left the battlefield, I picked up something strange. I knew what it was, what I couldn't figure out was what it held, and why. At first, I had half a mind to just crush it, but then I changed my mind when I heard his cries for help." Alex looked down at Dita and smiled again. "Dita, did you know that it was because of you I started killing the machines that first day?" Dita shook her head, but smiled at her being the true reason. "Well you were, but that was only because you cried out the same way he did. I knew then that I couldn't kill him. So instead of letting him go back to his world, I picked him up, which oddly enough, he thanked me for."

"Now, I've seen some strange shit in my life, pardon my French, but he really took the cake. When I brought him to the Eternal, we opened his life pod and discovered that he was a project that was designed to be the ultimate weapon for Taraaku. We knew this because of his features, and his ID Tag which read, Epsilon, on it." A few gasps were heard around the crew. "I see some of you know what he was." Alex smirked. "Seeing as that you know a little bit about him, I'll tell you what we did to him." Alex took a deep breath. "We turned him into my baby brother."

The reactions were many. Alex watched as Dita blinked, smiled, then blinked again, and then placed a finger to his lips in confusion. She didn't know what the project was. Meia had no reaction, well unless you call shrugging one, then she had one. Barnette went wide eyed and started stuttering. Jura just looked in between Alex and Barnette in confusion. The Bridge Bunnies all gasped, while one gasp seemed to be more of realization, rather then one of shock. For Duerro, he closed his only visible eye and placed a hand to his chin. Bart and Hibiki gave blank stares, hoping someone would state the obvious so they didn't have to look like a bunch of idiots. For the rest of the crew, they all seemed to just blink and not understand the meaning of it.

"Here's the fun thing about it him that I like so much." Alex jumped down, a smile on his face and a twig hanging from his mouth. "You see, he was supposedly brainwashed, in an attempt to make him a better killing machine. They however, failed miserably in their attempts. The first thing he saw was my mother, and the first thing I saw was him running into her arms out of fear. He was crying and begged for us to not take him back to that place." Alex began walking around in circles. "Now… I said I had seen some strange shit in my life, and by that I mean, women that were actually men, men that were actually women. I've seen people with two different eye colors, and God forbid, I've seen a Parrot that thought it was a dog. This kid however, took the cake in the fact that they crossed his DNA with a single cell they had recovered from their ancestral ship, this ship. That cell they crossed him with, was that of an Ireland Wolf. He had brown hair, shaggy and almost like a dogs' after they've been given a bath or just jumped into a pond to cool off. He had two triangle-like ears where his human ears would be, and a single long fluffy tail that I swear has a mind of its own. He made one hell of a strange picture. I had half a mind to just grab his ears to make sure I wasn't seeing illusions."

"Wait, they crossed his DNA with a wolf?!" Amarone gasped, clearly shocked by this information.

"Oh yeah, and trust me when I say that it took us quite awhile just to get him to hold still for a shot to check that out!" Alex stopped and was smiling widely. "We had to knock him out with a steel pipe just to do so. Seemed like anything you threw at him, just bounced right off. When we finally succeeded, we were all too worn out to even bother strapping him down. We were lucky that a person who has become a good friend was with us." Alex turned to Gascgone, and smiled. "You remember him, don't 'cha."

All eyes were now on Gascgone, and she just smiled. "Yeah, I remember him." Barnette gasped and fell on her butt while the other women looked at Alex then Gascgone, before a few curious eyes landed on Magno. "I thought you looked familiar, but when I asked the Captain about you, she just said that you wanted to remain off the radar. I didn't get what she meant until just now though."

"Yeah, and since I guess everyone has kinda figured out that I know you, they must also know that Magno knew about what truly happened over and on Taraaku since she wouldn't dare take on someone like us without good reasons." Magno smiled as Alex walked over to her. "I also know Rebecca, Ezra, Barnette, and Meia because of Magno here." Alex motioned the said people with his single hand, while the other went into his pocket. "Now Meia was a different story all together," Alex stopped and walked over to Meia. "I know you, but you don't know me. Odd, huh?" Alex smiled again as he walked around her. "Here in lies the truth behind what caused the incident on Mejarru." Meia turned to face him, eyes full of hatred.

"Since we didn't give our gifts to the men of Taraaku, and we had been helped by the women of Mejarru, who already possessed their gifts to speed up their planets' creation, we decided to give them the men's gifts as well." Alex once again stopped and looked at Meia. "I believe I told you to survive to see the world you mother dreamed, and if not for her sake, then do it for me." Meia nodded. "Then this will be plain and simple. We gave the gifts to your mother and Ouma." Meia had half a mind to kill him right there, but the other half won the battle, and she didn't. "Since our gifts had to be used with all the pieces, and our people figured that yours' would quickly remove them and wait to assemble them, we left and told them we'd be sending some of our people to help in the development. This is why I told Magno to keep me off the radar."

"We never knew anything on whether our people made it or not, since we received no word from them after they entered the Electromagnetic Storm that guards your two worlds. We figured they might have either been captured or just crashed landed on another world. We never dreamed that the men would kill them just for being involved with you. Plus the fact that the men had also successfully destroyed the installation that held our gifts to you. Magno informed me that a few pieces got off the site while a few others survived the fight. The men had struck the site, believing that that was where the "Demon Machines" came from. And your parents' did not heed our words. I should know, I was there when my father and weak mother told them to not use it unless it was all there. But you did, didn't you?" Meia nodded; a sad expression on her face. It almost seemed as though she was about to cry. "Without all the equipment, the end results would be disastrous, and they found out first hand to always heed the words of friends. That's what caused the incident."

"You may not remember me, but I remember you and your mother. I was still crying over my loss, but I remember you asking me why I was crying before heading back with your family to do what ever it was you were going to do."

"So it was your people that gave us the gifts to help our planet, but the men destroyed it because they wanted revenge?" Meia asked; fists clenched and ready to fly. Alex narrowed his eyes and nodded. "So this is why you believe you owe me a debt, why you asked me that question earlier, but I still don't know how Alexander plays into all this!"

"He doesn't, it was a delay tactic that worked until you either gave up, or just realized that your team left without you." Alex stated, pointing at her head. "You think too much, and don't act near enough. You believed me, and there in lies the problem." Meia looked up, eyes drilling a hole in his head. "You're a Flight Leader, and I manipulated you without even trying. A true Flight Leader wouldn't have been manipulated so easily, twice I might add." Meia looked at him again, this time, confusion written in her eyes. "When I told you that Pawns go before the Knights, I was seeing how easy it would be to manipulate you, and it was rather easy. All I had to do was put something in your head to make you think I'm a Pawn and you fell for it. You sent me to do all the fighting while you stayed back and didn't lift a finger, probably hoping I'd die, or just come back begging for help." Meia looked down at the grassy floor while the rest of the Dread pilots gasped. "Don't worry, I still liked you and I always will for that. You did do one thing I didn't count on though, and that was try to beat me in Chess." Magno began chuckling.

"Nice to see you enjoy playing riddles with people then." Magno said, walking over to him. "Since you've explained everything now, how do you feel?"

"In truth, you're all just lucky he's not Rain, Blood, or my creator, Asaugi, at the moment, because protocol says that anyone who learns this is to be killed on sight." Maya announced, appearing beside Meia in her ball form.

"Oh shit can it!" Alex roared, earning him a few stares of disbelief. "Screw those for once, since until I get back home, I'll be considered a Pirate, no matter where I go." The women all seemed to think about this before shrugging and seeing why. He was months away from his main colony, so it only made sense since he was going to be with them the whole way there. "Now that the story is out of the way, how many of you hate me?" Bart and Hibiki raised their hands. "How many of you like me or are just going to view me with the same respect you've always given me since I got here?" All the women, say for Meia and a few others, raised their hands. "How many of you just don't care?" the pilots all raised their hands. "And how many of you am I going to have to worry about when I sleep?" No one raised their hands. "Okay then," Alex turned to Magno and said, "Looks like you got your first male pirate, eh," with a smile.

(-)

"So you don't hate me?" Alex asked, moving his Pawn to take a Knight. "You're not getting any better at this you know?" Meia sighed as she watched him take another Pawn with one of his own. "Still, you are trying, and that's the most important thing there is." He took another, this time with his King. "Going in for the kill and you still failed. Still, a straight forward approach to things sometimes works, so good job." Alex watched as she took one of his Rook's with her Pawn.

"Does that count for anything?" She asked; a smile on her face. "I don't hate you for what you were trying to do though. But I still think you held something back when you explained your story to us." Her gaze landed on his blue eyes. "What happened when you got home?"

Alex took her Rook with his Queen. He glanced down at the Queen, and then picked it up as though he was checking it for damage or whatnot. "The King is always told to protect his Queen." He mussed as he placed the piece back down on the board. "When we got home and told our people about what happened, Rei's family, the woman I proposed to, killed themselves out of grief. They couldn't stand not having their child with them and it drove them insane. My father suffered the same fate in the end. He killed himself over his failure to protect my mother and what would have been my baby brother. In the end, she died too." Meia's eyes saddened at this. "She still isn't the same since then." Meia now gave him an odd glance. "She can't have kids anymore. She always loved hearing the pitter patter of feet flying down the hallways of our own home."

Meia took his Queen with her Bishop, and Alex returned to take it with his King. "So she was pregnant too and you lost two people on that day?" Meia mussed taking another Pawn. "I'm sorry for your loss. I truly am." She took his final Pawn while he took her final Knight. "I'm sorry for everything that's happened in your life since we seem to be at the center of it."

"No, I should be apologizing to you since we caused your parents' death in some way." Alex got her in Check. "Check." Meia looked at the board trying to find a way out. "Sometimes, the best path is not always seen until the very end of the journey." Alex motioned her last Rook and her King. Meia blinked and then watched as he made them switch places. "The best path is often unseen and goes unseen towards the end of the journey. For those that look for them, they often stubble across the given path a few times before finding the right one. Who knows, maybe I can find happiness somewhere down the road." Alex mussed as he moved his last Knight into Check with her King. "Check."

"I noticed that one of your wallpapers on your laptop has the words, "I can not defend you without a sword. I can not embrace you with a sword. So what can I truly do?" written on it." She moved her King to a safe place for the moment. Alex moved his last Rook to stop its escape route. "Is that how you think now?"

Alex looked up from the board and into her blue eyes. She was bracing her head on her hand at the moment and a staring into his. "I can't do both at the same time. I have to pick a side, but both lead to loneliness anyways, so why bother?" Alex moved his last Bishop to stop her final escape route and declare, "Checkmate" as he stood up and walked to the door.

"The path not seen is often the best one, right?" Meia got Alex's attention as he turned his eyes to the board and found her last Bishop had his King in Check and he didn't see it. "The path is never seen until the end. You lost." She smiled. Alex walked over and showed his King was safe, via his final Knight. "How did you…"

"I always keep one eye on the enemy and another on the future." He whispered, walking to the door. "The best path has still yet to be found. When we reach it, will we be the same, or will secret doors open up to guide us down a path not seen?" He questioned, walking out of the room.

Meia knocked her King over again, staring at the board before her. "When we reach the end of the journey, I'm sure that new paths will open up." She stood up and walked to the window to look at the stars. "I'm sure that something will happen in the end to give us the opening we need, just to see that hidden door."


	8. An Audience I must have

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 8 An Audience I must have

"This still seems wrong. Pyoro." The little robot noted, floating beside Meia. The Nirvana had run across a station that Alex said was the first to be attacked. Though it became abandoned in the end, all sorts of supplies remained behind. Though an investigation had been conducted, nothing had ever been found, and the supplies left for reasons unknown.

"It's not wrong, its survival of the fittest." Meia corrected, playing with some circuits. "Besides, Alex already told us that this place has been deemed un-operational for the strange disappearance of the crew."

"Still seems wrong though. Pyoro."

Meia rolled her eyes as she went back to working on the wires. She was looking for a way to open the large doors that lead to a mech repair bay. Alex figured that they could get some more repair parts for any of their machines incase they got badly damaged. Jura and Barnette was her backup while Pyoro was there to warn them for any movement that wasn't from the team sent in to gather things. Dita and Hibiki were off with Alex to get any food rations they could find.

"Just keep an eye out for any unwanted new people, okay?" Meia told him, shaking her head at the tiny robot.

(-)

"Mr. Suit, why did this place become un-operational?" Dita questioned, as she trotted beside Hibiki and Alex. Alex was up front, walking towards a set of metallic doors that lay on the floor, ripped from their hinges.

"It's Alex." He moaned, walking through the hole in the wall where the doors use to be. "And to answer your question, it was because all the people on the station disappeared one day without any warning. We had a brief message from them one day before the incident and then the next day they were gone. It was a little bizarre at first, but after some investigation all the evidence pointed to a struggle, but there was still no sign of the soldiers that were once on this place." He answered, walking towards a few cupboards.

"How long has this place been like this?" Hibiki asked, doing the same. He found a few odd items, but threw them away, rather than ask what they were.

"For about two months, so if you find any spices, sugars, flour, or anything that's in a can, it should still be good. All those items have a shelf life that can last forever, or until someone opened them." Alex told him, pulling out a few spices.

"Don't worry, Alex. I'll help Mr. Alien!" Dita sang, trotting off to help her alien. Hibiki groaned as he walked off into the darkness of another room. Alex sighed and went back to pulling out the items he could find.

(-)

Hibiki had ditched Dita and was now in a strange room that seemed to overlook a dead Bio Garden. It was old and dead, if not dieing in some areas that still seemed to show signs of life. Hibiki figured that it was a place that people often came to watch the stars or fleets fly by, since the area was littered with benches and trashcans that still had stuff from the last time someone had been in it. He felt a wave of pity for Alex, being in another place that probably once held people who knew and cared for, must have been hard for him.

_I wonder what got these people. It's sad to see such a place without anyone in it. It kinda feels, empty. Just like the colony Alex was from._

Hibiki turned around to go find Alex and Dita. He didn't want to make it seem as though he ran off, but he needed to get away from Dita, her alien questions, and her odd look she would give him when watching him do just about anything. She was so strange.

Crash

Hibiki smacked into the back of a large man, clad in rob like cloths and an eye patch over his right eye and two red marks under his left eye. The man gave him a blank stare as Hibiki went wide eyed, his eyes full of joy.

"You're a man aren't you?" He asked slowly. The man quirked his only visible brow as Hibiki smiled brightly. "You are a man! You came here to rescue us didn't you?!" Hibiki jumped up and ran towards him. The man quickly pulled a gun out and Hibiki stopped cold in his tracks. "Hey what's going on?!" Hibiki yelled.

The man didn't answer, but spun around and grappled Hibiki while his gun went up to an area in the rafters above them. His gun followed an imaginary object for a few minutes before his gun was instantly lifted into the air, showing he gave up. Hibiki was about to say something, but a gun being cocked quickly got his attention. The man released Hibiki, throwing his weapon to Barnette's feet, her gun following his head incase he tried something. Jura showed up, her sword aimed at the back of his neck. Meia was up front, her ring laser pointed at his head while an angry Pyoro floated beside her.

"What's this, another man?" Jura asked, clearly not very impressed. The man just smiled as he took in the three women. "Where'd you come from?" Jura hissed.

"Looks like a there's a bunch of fine treasures on this colony." He grinned, an evil grin as he took in the three women with a lustful look in his only visible eye. His grin was short lived as a scream echoed through out the station. Out came Dita, and what looked like an oversized monkey or ape of some kind. Needless to say, it wasn't to pretty looking. It was currently chasing Dita through the station as she searched for her friends.

"Utan cut it out." The man moaned. The animal now in question, stopped and glared at the man, but smiled as she quickly latched onto Pyoro who was now floating beside Dita, asking her if she was alright. Dita would have replied, but the ape flying and grabbing Pyoro put that on hold.

"Don't try anything funny, man!" Barnette barked as the man spun around and watched as Hibiki walked back over to the group. "Hibiki, how did this man get the drop on you? I thought you said you were a man and could predict these sorts of things." Barnette snapped.

The man took one look between the two bickering teens and started cracking up. The team, slightly disturbed by this, questioned the man's sanity. "Wait, you mean this little girl his actually a man?" He pointed to Hibiki as he went red in the face. "I'm sorry kid, but you look so cute!" He began slapping his own leg in an attempt to regain his composure. He did so, and introduced himself. "Sorry for that ladies, but I'm Rabat, and it's a pleasure to meet you." He bowed in respect while his little pet, slammed her right hand against her head, while her free hand was keeping Pyoro on the ground while a worried Dita tried to remove him from her grasp.

"Hey, let her go!" Jura roared, turning to stab the monkey/ape thing. Utan jumped over her strike and landed beside Rabat, who quickly took the little robot and threw it into Meia's face, while Barnette opened fire. Rabat rolled backwards and snatched his gun, repeating the process to duck under Jura's swing while Hibiki sent a fist at him. Rabat tossed Hibiki's attack away, while Dita jumped out of Rabat's way, giving him a clear escape exit. A whistling sound filled the air as a spinning blade spun around Jura's head, almost hitting her. Rabat turned and shot the item away with one shot as he disappeared into the darkness of the confines in the colony.

When it was all said and done, the team looked at each other in confusion as they looked down at the tri-bladed weapon. Meia picked it up and tossed it back into the darkness of the rafters where it was caught by Alex, who jumped down after catching it.

"What was with that man?" Meia asked. Alex turned to face her, a brow raised as he looked back into the darkness of the corridor that the man had taken. "Did you know him or…"

"No." Alex interrupted her, walking over to Jura who was looking at her hair with Barnette at the moment. "I didn't hit your hair, Jura." Jura breathed a sigh of relief as she stopped her task of finding any damaged hair. "I wouldn't dream of cutting a single lock of hair off your pretty little head." He walked off with the team behind him.

The station instantly began shaking violently, sending the team to the ground with their supplies that Alex had brought with him. The team looked between each other, and then ran to the place they left their machines.

"Got a plan?" Jura asked, running beside Meia. Meia shook her head as the hanger door was ripped open by Alex shooting the keypad apart with his AS50 Rifle he had converted to Semi Auto. Once inside the hanger, the team mounted their machines, and blasted off into space to fight whatever it was that was out there. The instant they were out, they were greeted by a large number of pods that were currently tearing apart.

Hibiki was in his Vanguard as usual, though he was using a battle axe, rather then his twin swords that he normally would use. He was currently working alone, and was doing pretty well. A few drones got lucky and tackled him into submission. Hibiki growled as he tried to break free from the horde of enemies. A few white energy beams punched the enemies off him, with the culprit being Jura's red Dread.

"Hey there now how about my reward, please?" Jura blew him a kiss as her face and voice appeared on screen.

"No way!" He yelled, blasting off towards another horde of enemies. Once again, he suffered the same fate, and once again, Jura came to his rescue, only this time, a blinding light blinded everyone beside them. When the light faded, Vandread Dita was standing before them and a cheering Dita sat happily on top of Hibiki who looked rather unhappy at the moment.

"Dita, you ungrateful…" Jura began, but Dita's tongue came out while her hand jumped up to her eyelid and was gratefully pulled down so she could give the older women a funny look. "Dita, you cheat!" She roared.

"Snooze you lose!" She chanted, readying their shoulder cannons. Alex flew up beside them in Wing Zero with his Twin Buster Rifle ready to fire. "Should we destroy the station, Alex?"

A pod went to shoot the duo, but a quick blast from an unknown red mech that was standing on a medium sized space ship, saved them. "Yeah, blow it up!" Alex commanded, firing his rifle. Vandread Dita did the same thing, shooting two tubes of energy at the station. The three beams of light crashed into the colony, tearing it apart.

(-)

"Utan old friend, I think we just hit the jackpot." Rabat stated, a mischievous smirk plastered to his face. His red orangutan just smiled as she rubbed, licked, and hugged her new found friend, Pyoro, while he protested about robot abuse.

(-)

"Well that was worthwhile." Alex moaned, dismounting his machine. The Wing Zero was lying on the ground beside the Freedom, which seemed to be enjoying its time off in Alex's opinion anyways. "Did the Tech's get anything useful before we blasted the place?" Alex asked Meia as she walked over to him with Jura and Barnette following closely behind her.

"Yeah, they were able to get a few baking items, but nothing really useful to us." She admitted. "I wonder what that red mech was." She mussed as Jura and Dita began getting into it over the combination fight from earlier.

"Who cares, it's not really important right now anyways." Alex shrugged as he walked over to the doors to leave. Dita and Jura's yells of anger over the combination finally hit Alex's ears. "Oh can it, will ya?!" He roared, momentarily shocking the two bickering women. Two seconds later, they were back at it, only Barnette was siding with Dita, rather than siding with Jura. Meia sighed and followed Alex out of the hanger so the Techs could begin working on the machines.

"So, you wanna rematch, or do you wanna get something to eat?" Alex asked once the doors leading to the hanger closed. Meia gave him an odd look, but Alex had already gotten use to this and knew what it meant. "The rematch it is." He moaned, clearly not very impressed by Meia's lack of nutriment hints he sent her way.

"I'm getting better though." She stated, following him with an evil grin on her face. "I'll get you this time."

"If you say so." He moaned. His stomach grumbled in agreement while it went unheard by the ever determined Meia at the moment.

(-)

"Well you see my ship took some minor damage and I need to get it repaired." Rabat admitted. Rabat had been talking to Magno for the past two minutes, and was slowly trying to get in so he could repair his machine. He explained that the red mech was his friends' and since it saved them, they could at least allow him a chance to get his machine repaired without having to float around in space. When this failed, he quickly turned the camera to Utan who was currently latched to a very unhappy Pyoro that was currently being licked all over by Utan.

"Oh no!" Dita cried. She quickly spun around to see if Magno was angry at her for forgetting a comrade. Luckily, she was more worried about just getting him back at the moment, rather than start playing Pin the Blame game at the moment.

"Very well, but only to repair your ship." Magno stated sternly. "If you cause any fuss on this ship, we'll throw you out into space and leave you to those strange machines." With that, her chair went up inside her quarters.

"Thank you." He replied as the Nirvana slowly appeared over his ship. He closed the connection to the ship as he turned to face his partner. "Utan old friend, it looks like things are finally about to get brighter for us." The orangutan cried happily, licking her new found 'Friend', much to the annoyance of Pyoro.

(-)

The doors hissed open as Rabat walked onto the ship, a smile plastered his face as he scanned the many faces of women before him. His smile was one that any normal man or woman would identify as a perverted one. His grin had not gone unseen, and as luck would have it, an enraged expression was on his face. It was Hibiki, and he was none to happy about the grin that was on his face at the moment, though Rabat didn't truly seem to care, since he was surrounded by women that all seemed to either pointing weapons at him, or in Parfait's case, snatch up Pyoro, instantly making the little robot happy.

"My, my, my; look at all the pretty faces." Rabat said, grinning as he walked back onto his ship. As soon as he was in, he was back out with a medium sized black box that he opened up to show its contents. Jewelry was in the box and threatened to spill out from the sheer amount inside. The women all gathered around it, say for Parfait who was currently fighting over Pyoro with Utan.

"Utan!" Rabat snapped. Utan quit her attempts to get her little friend back, and went to rummaging through the girls in an attempt to get closer to her master. "Sorry about Utan, I have no idea what got in her head." Rabat announced as Parfait walked over to him. Parfait just waved it off as she looked down at the items with a slightly disappointed expression. "You don't seem like the jewelry type I guess?" He arched a brow. Parfait nodded, but looked on just for anything that really stood out or sparked her interest. "Here." Rabat handed a white object with wires hanging out of the side. In a flash, the object was in her hands and she seemed to be drooling over it as she chanted off all the things she could do with it. "Nice to see another satisfied customer." Rabat whispered to himself as he walked over to Hibiki, Bart and Duerro.

"A man should never show his teeth to a woman!" Hibiki hissed. Rabat had a mischevious grin as he pointed to his face and smiled widely. "You really are an idiot, you know that?" Hibiki snapped, walking away while Bart started talking to him and trying to get him to eat some Food Pills.

"What's with him?" Rabat motioned Hibiki with thumb.

Duerro shrugged and said, "We're from Taraaku," while watching the women all interact with their new items. Paiway came over to the three men with a smile and purple lipstick on. Rabat arched a brow while Duerro bore no expression. "Paiway, what are you doing?" Duerro asked nonchalantly.

"What do you think?" She replied, smiling a seductive smile. Rabat gave her a thumbs' up while Bart arched a brow and Duerro just gave his odd smirk that bore neither a happy grin nor an evil one.

"Say, Mr. Storekeeper?" Dita walked over to him, a small vile of red lipstick in her hands. Rabat turned around, a smile on his face. "How much does this cost?" She handed him the object.

"Since this your first time seeing me and shopping with me, it's on the house." He smiled as she ran off, clutching the item like a lifeline. He watched her run down the corridor, and then disappear down another one just as quickly. "She's awfully happy about something." Rabat smiled as he stood up, walking over to the hoard of women that were scanning the box of goodies.

_I wonder where they keep their machines. _Rabat mussed, smiling as he began doing some more business with his costumers.

(-)

"Seriously, stop being such a ditz." Alex moaned, moving a Pawn to take Meia's last Knight. Meia growled and considered shooting him for his words again. "Seriously, you were doing much better yesterday, and now you just… suck." Alex took another Pawn with one of his own.

"You're not _helping_." She growled, moving her white Bishop into Check with his King. "Check." She moaned. She frowned as he took the Bishop with a Pawn that was beside it. "Why can't I concentrate today?!" She growled, slamming her fist on the table. 

"It's because your gut is screaming for food." Alex moaned, his stomach following him a few seconds later. "Seriously Meia, we need to get something to eat, or you are going to continue spiraling downhill." Alex stood up, heading towards the door.

"We're not leaving until I've beaten you." She stood up, snatched his wrist up, and slammed him back into his seat. "You will remain sitting until I have successfully gotten you in Check where you have to move that damn King." She growled, setting the game back up.

"Meia, for the love of all that I hold dear," Meia looked up at him with fire burning in her eyes. "If we don't get something to eat, we will be target practice for the enemy." He finished. Meia stared at him for a few minutes before sighing and standing up. "Come on, it'll make you think clearer. And besides, I'll teach you a trick after we get something to eat." Meia looked up at him, a slight smile on her face, and followed him out of the room.

(-)

"I'm sure we can reach some kind of an agreement." Rabat stated, a smile plastered to his face. Magno was looking down at the man with an amused grin as her bridge bunnies continued to enjoy the new gifts they received. Some of the girls had gotten rings, while a few others took some earrings, though Ezra got a golden necklace that had a small purple droplet on it. "I mean, I'm sure you'll need a place to refuel and re-supply." Rabat continued to negotiate with Magno, though he had a feeling he wasn't truly getting anywhere since she continued to just smile and nod on certain occasions.

"True, but one of our men is taking us to his place to do so." Magno interrupted the man before he could continue. "I'm sure you've heard of Scion, yes?" Rabat paled, though no one knew if it was because he had seen Bart naked, via the video feed he accidentally opened up. "He's taking us to his home colony for repairs and supplies. But any information you have about this surrounding place, would be helpful."

"I'm sure we can reach something then." Rabat mussed, walking over to Amarone. "How about this, I tell you what I know, and you can let me look at the machines that destroyed the colony?" Magno raised a brow, while BC narrowed hers.

"And why should we do this?" BC inquired.

"You want information, right?" He smirked as he watched Amarone blush at him being in her personal space. She could feel his breath running down her neck, causing her skin to crawl, something about him just screamed 'evil' to her. "Besides, I'm sure I know things that a dog of the military doesn't know."

"Really, name one thing I don't know then." Alex asked, surprising everyone. Rabat spun around to find Alex, his eyes closed so tight that it meant he was smiling. Meia was behind him, finishing whatever it was that she was once eating. "I would love to know what you know, because I'm certain I know what you know and you know that I know what you know, so we both know that I know all that you know." Alex said, not once stuttering or having to repeat himself after going through one loop of a tongue twister.

"I know stuff about your military that I'm sure you don't know kid." Rabat stated, his visible eye watching Alex as he slowly stepped forward. Alex shot him a glance that begged him to go on. "For instance, that colony you destroyed, do you know what took away all the people on it?" 

"I believe the proper way to say that would be, "The colonies citizens that resided within the colony, do you know what abducted them"." Maya corrected, appearing from Alex's wrist PDA, the one thing he kept from his armor.

"A talking AI; never saw that coming." Rabat mussed, clearly not impressed by the blue orb before him.

"Please, I do not prefer the term 'AI', I prefer to be called an 'Inorganic Life Form'." She stated, floating up beside Alex's ear. She still seemed to flicker when she spoke, but the words she spoke couldn't be heard.

"Like I care." Alex answered as the AI vanished back into his PDA. Alex turned his attention to Rabat as he walked over to him, standing only a mere foot away from him. "Let me get a few things clarified so we don't have this conversation ever again, okay?" Alex said, smiling behind his mask. Rabat grinned and nodded as Alex began shaking his head in a circular motion. "First off, I'm not a 'kid', I'm a Young Adult. I'd say Adult just because on my home colony I'm legal age, but when your mother still calls you her 'Little Baby Boy', that makes it kinda hard." Rabat nodded at this while BC began keeping her eyes one Alex. "Secondly, I'm not a 'Dog of the Military'," Alex paused, took a deep breath, then said, "I'm a 'Demon of the Military," as his eyes snapped open, retaining the bloodlust look they held on his colony, as he spun on one foot to swipe Rabat's feet out from under him, sending him to the ground hard. There must have only been a mere millisecond to react to his attack, but Rabat was to big to truly dodge the attack all the way, and unfortunately went crashing to the ground, head first. "I'm glad we had this conversation." Alex walked off; his eyes back to normal as he assured Meia back to the Recreation Room for another match in Chess.

Rabat glared at the boy as he walked out the door. He really hated that kid now, and there was no two ways about it. Sighing, he picked himself up off the floor, dusted his pants off, and looked up at Magno who had just finished stifling her laughter. "That guy's got some issues." He stated coldly. Magno stopped laughing as Rabat continued. "That kid is a threat to you and everyone on this ship."

"He's only like that because he doesn't like people that call him that." Ezra stated, shocking a few people.

"So anyways, where were we?" Rabat asked.

(-)

"Don't you think you went a little overboard?" Meia finally asked. Alex shrugged as they continued walking towards the Recreation Room for their match. "I noticed you handed something to the Captain before we left. What was it?" She asked, a brow raised in curiosity.

"That man, I don't like him." was her reply. "He seems… shifty, if you ask me." Alex continued walking towards that room with a brow raised as he seemed deep thought. "Maya, why do you think he was at the colony?"

"Why should I…" Meia began before Maya appeared.

"I believe he was looking for some technology in the station." She interrupted Meia, who now seemed to be red in face. "As you know, that station held lots of weapons that we were testing here. It would not surprise me none if he had already raided the place before we arrived."

"Still, what did he get that you know of?" Meia was now jealous over not being in this conversation.

"Records indicate that the station once held Battle Mech parts for various machines that we had in testing, two new rifles that would have been sent to Team Wolf Bang. There seemed to have once been a large machine that was still in testing, but it was never on any of the records that appeared within the system, nor on the underground system. Strange, there were multiple paper trails that lead to it, but I guess those might have been decoys to elude people from the real station that held it." Maya told him. Alex nodded, understanding the meaning in that, but still seemed to be deep in thought. "Is something the matter?"

"Meia," both women looked at him, trying to figure out which one he was talking to. "The human Meia," Alex moaned, seeing the look in Meia's eyes. "I was wondering why you're so determined to beat me in Chess." Meia blinked and then placed a finger to her chin, making her look deep in thought. "Never mind," he moaned.

The two quickly arrived at their destination a few minutes later, though Alex seemed to still be bugged by something. They set up the board and began playing. Alex was now black, while Meia was white. Meia moved first, placing the Pawn that sat in front of her Queen up two spaces. "So, you wanna talk about it?" She mussed.

"Talk about what?" He mussed, moving the same Pawn to meet hers. Meia rolled her eyes, this time moving the Pawn in front of her King up two spaces. Alex took her Pawn with his Pawn that sat beside it. "That man, he's going to try something funny." Alex stated, leaning back in his chair.

"You think he's going to try to destroy this ship?" Meia questioned, moving another Pawn.

"Let's lay low for the time being." Alex put her King in Check within five moves. "Let's see what he does first. I don't feel like playing my hand incase we have to." Alex set up the board again, this time he was white while Meia was black.

(-)

"So how's the new hardware coming along?" A Tech asked. Parfait was buried under a massive amount of wires and gadgets that were under a control panel she was in at the moment.

"Pretty good, but I still seem to be having some problems adjusting the wavelengths at the moment." She announced, sounding very happy with her new 'toy' at the moment. The Tech just smiled as she went back to helping out in adjusting wavelengths.

"Nice to see another satisfied customer." Rabat chirped, walking into the engineering room. The women gave him an odd expression that he couldn't read, but he didn't really care either way. "So, how's it coming along?" He asked, getting down to eye level with the enthused Tech.

"Pretty, good but the wavelengths are still off to some degree. But don't worry, I'll get it fixed in a jiffy." She sang. Rabat just smiled as he left the Tech to her fun. As soon as he was out, he went looking for the hanger again.

"Oh, Mr. Storekeeper!" Dita sang happily. Rabat grinned as he walked over to the teen. "I was wondering, what were you doing on the colony?" She placed a finger to her chin, adding more fuel to the innocent look she always seemed to have.

"I was looking for a special machine, but I see that both of them have already been taken into this ship." He groaned. He brightened up as Dita pranced over to him, a smile on her face.

"What kind of machines were they?" She asked; her innocent smile still there.

"Well, they were the ones your friends were fighting in." He replied, a mischievous grin on his face. "Say, do you think you could show them to me? I just wanna peak if you don't mind." He asked. Dita seemed deep in thought. She knew that Alex probably wouldn't mind, but she had a feeling that Hibiki might get really angry at her for showing him his machine. Sighing, she began walking to the hanger.

(-)

"So this is the machine you combined with?" Rabat asked, clearly impressed. Dita had spent the past five minutes during the walk to explain how they did it. Rabat smiled at her childish way of explaining things, but as soon as he saw the machine, his smile was replaced with one of a lustful one as he stepped up on the ramp that would lead to the hatch.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Dita asked, standing in front of the golden machine with her arms raised. "This is Mr. Alien's machine and you can't touch it!" She growled. Rabat sighed and pushed her away.

"Get out of my way little girl." He snapped, grabbing her arm and tossing her to the metal grating with a simple flick of his arm.

(-)

"Man, that guy really pisses me off!" Hibiki yelled. Duerro gave no reply. Bart just munched on a few more soldier pills, nodding in agreement. He was strange, but neither of them knew much about this area of space, so they could only theorize at the moment. "I'd love to put that man in his place." Hibiki growled, laying down on his bed.

"As soon as his machine is repaired, he'll be leaving. So you shouldn't have to worry about him for very long." Duerro stated, turning the page of a book he found in storage on the ship.

"It better be soon, cause if I see him smile like that again, I'll punch his teeth in!" Hibiki roared, bringing a fist to his face as he smiled at it. "I'll show him my right hook." He boasted. Bart raised a brow, but his hand mentally went up to his cheek, remembering when Alex slugged him for something about being an asshole again.

"_Hibiki, we've got problems in the hanger!" _BC roared over the Nirvana's speaker systems. Hibiki didn't need to be told again, and was gone in a flash. _"That man has captured Dita and is trying to take off in your unit." _She finished.

Bart and Duerro sat there, confused over what was about to go on. "So, you think he's going to protect his Van-type?" Bart asked, munching on a few more pills.

"No, it has armor, Dita doesn't." Duerro stated, walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Bart asked, standing up and following.

"I'm going to the infirmary to wait for Hibiki. I have a feeling that man is going to win the fight." He told him, walking down the corridor towards the elevator.

(-)

"GET OUT OF MY WAY, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Rabat roared, throwing Dita away again. Dita was being quite persistent in his attempt to escape, but Rabat, being bigger and stronger then her, was able to keep going as she kept throwing herself back in front of the hatch.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY PARTNER!" Hibiki shouted. Rabat spun around, eyeing the small boy before him. Rabat sighed and jumped the rail with Dita slowly walking down the ramp holding her side. "I hope you can see well out of that only working eye you got." Hibiki boasted, clenching his fist tightly.

"I can see good out of the other eye too." Rabat joked, showing his other eye working fine. Hibiki, now really pissed off, charged him, a fist cocked and ready to fly. He was two feet away from him when a bright light was emitted from his eye piece. A fist suddenly slammed into his gut, sending him skidding backwards in pain. "Why was it you?" Hibiki slowly stood up, not understanding his question. "Why did it choose someone like you?!" He yelled, punching Hibiki in the face as he slowly rose from the ground. Hibiki went sailing backwards, crashing into a small wooden crate.

"What… are you… talking… about?" Hibiki gasped, slowly rising to his feet. Rabat did an uppercut, sending Hibiki sailing again.

"Why did the spirits choose someone like you?!" He roared, slamming his fist into Hibiki gut again, and then following through by grabbing the back of his shirt to lift him up and slam his knee into his gut as he forced him down at a fast rate. The combination knocked the wind out of Hibiki, which caused him to start throwing up blood. Rabat grabbed a fist full of hair, and slammed Hibiki head into the ground. His foot then crashed down on top of it, knocking him for a loop.

Dita appeared over by Hibiki, trying desperately to shield him. Rabat took one look at the two, and then frowned. "What is he to you?" He asked, watching as Dita began crying for him to stop.

"He's… he's…" Dita stuttered. She didn't know what she was to him. She truly didn't know. Did he view her as a means to become stronger, like a weapon that should be kept at someone's side at all time? She didn't know what to think, but this wasn't because she didn't know, it was because Rabat had kicked her in the gut to send her sailing a few feet away from them. "Mr. Alien…" She whispered.

"I'm taking your machine, kid. And next time, use your own words, not someone else's." Rabat stated, walking towards the golden machine again. A whistling sound was all the warning he needed to shoot a spinning disk of death that seemed to be aimed at his head. Another one appeared behind him, forcing him to fire again, only this time, the bullet passed through it and so did the weapon. "Hallow grams?" He questioned. A sharp stinging sensation rang out through the back of his left leg. He looked back, eyes full of confusion as a tri bladed weapon was the culprit for his pain. Another whistling sound soon filled his ears, this time coming from the side. He instinctively shot it, watching as the weapon crashed into the ground, before another one appeared behind him. He shot the new arrival, watching it too as it fell to the ground. This time, two more whistling noises caught his ears, and he spun to find two heading towards him from the front. He shot both, and watched as the two didn't crash into the ground, meaning they were fakes. He quickly spun around and shot two more that had appeared from his right, watching as they crashed into the ground, but a sharp pain once again coursed through his body. His eye began scanning for the person throwing them. "Come on out you coward!" Rabat spat, pulling the weapons free. "Hiding in the shadows, how immature can you get kid?!" Rabat continued.

"I told you once," Alex walked out with two silver balls in his hand, both about the size of a baseball. Rabat instantly shot him, only to watch as he faze out of existence. "You're not strong enough to beat me." Alex's voice seemed to come from all directions, causing panic to sweep through everyone that was there, and for those that were watching. Alex had slipped into the shadows, and was now undetectable like a ghost in a white room. "You hide behind a gun. You struck someone who was only trying to protect another person. You are trying to take something that doesn't belong to you." Alex stepped out of the shadows, though; eighteen actually stepped out from a different spot where shadows resided. "And what's worse is that you had the nerve to call me kid again, AND, strike a poor girl that only wanted to protect what she views important."

"And what's wrong with doing what is needed to survive?" Rabat groaned, pulling the three weapons free and throwing them at three of the figures. The three figures phased out of existence once the weapon went through them. "You play tricks to win your fights. So how can you call me a coward?"

"You did the same thing to Hibiki." Alex whispered behind him. Rabat spun around just in time to see Alex's fist connecting with his face, sending him into Meia who instantly shot away his eye patch's strap, letting it fall to the ground. "I told you once already, I'm not a 'kid', I'm a young adult. Get it wrong again, and I'll slit your throat, watch you bleed, then play in your blood." Alex told him, punching him in the back of the head and into Meia's waiting fist. The man staggered backwards, shaken, but not beaten.

"Okay, I can take a hint." He mussed, walking by the two. "I'll make sure that you never have to deal with me again." He sighed, walking towards his ship.

"Dita," Dita looked up at Meia. "Get Hibiki to Doc. He needs medical attention." She ordered. Dita nodded and pulled Hibiki to his feet while helping him walk to the infirmary. "I never would have guessed you to be a trickster." Meia told Alex as he walked over to her, picking up his tri bladed weapons.

"When the media chases you everywhere, you have to resort to this sort of thing." He told her, watching as Dita carried Hibiki away. "You must have one hell of a left hook." Alex said, smiling as Meia rubbed her fist.

"He's a little hardheaded if you ask me." She groaned, still rubbing her fist. "I'll go talk to the Captain about him." Meia stated, walking out of the hanger and through the mass of spectators that had come to watch the fight. Each step she took cleared more people out of her way as she marched through them, unfazed by their odd expressions.

_Then I guess I'll be waiting for you in the Recreation Room again. _Alex thought to himself as he trotted off into the shadows again, his hallow grams following his every step.

(-)

"Rabat's ship has detached from the Nirvana, Ma'am!" Amarone announced.

"Then let's do what Pirates do best." She stated with a smile on her face. "Bart, go catch him, so we can raid his craft." She barked. The ship instantly began speeding towards the black ship in front of them, quickly catching up to it.

"_Let's see you outrun me!" _Bart yelled in the helm.

(-)

Parfait was staring blankly at the display screen that was showing power output at the moment. The levels were slowly climbing, which was a good thing, but it still had Parfait in a bit of confusion. She continued to stare at it before the levels began to rise rapidly.

(-)

"Utan, I think its time to lose them." Rabat declared. Utan's reply, she cried over not being able to see her little robot again as Rabat pressed a button on a small remote.

(-)

The Nirvana came to a dead stop, smoke shooting out of its thrusters. Bart began screaming in pain over having the back end of the ship explode, though not killing anyone, as it came to a stop. He wouldn't be able to sit for a week now as since his butt was now really sore.

"What just happened?!" Magno demanded.

"_Someone get the warranty on this new gear!" _Parfait's voice rang out through out the ship.

Magno sighed; they lost him and their chance at revenge for what he did to them, in hopes of getting their machines. "That's just great." Magno moaned.

(-)

"So," Jura began a happy tone in her voice. "How long before he finds out you took his stuff and replaced it with a hallow gram?" She was examining all the new jewelry with Barnette, though Barnette was going over her new collection of guns she stole.

"I'd say… about five minutes." Alex laughed, staring at his new glass Chess set. The black haired boy found a rather fun Chess set that he swore was about a hundred years old since it had some minor damage but was still playable. "Have any of you seen Meia? I wanna kick her ass with this Chess set so I can break it in."

"I think she went to the Bio Garden." Barnette told him, aiming her new M16 Carbine at an imaginary object. "I think she said something about talking to Hibiki. Not sure though." She put the weapon down and picked up a Grenade Launcher. "This man was carrying around some pretty heavy stuff."

"Like you'll ever get a chance to use something like that." Alex joked, setting up the game. "How long do you think it'll be before someone comes down here to see what we're doing?" Alex turned to face a happy Paiway that was playing with some small puppets.

"No one really comes down here anymore, but I can spread the word if you want me to." Paiway chirped, picking up her frog puppet, Kero, and another puppet that Alex swore looked like a Kitsune, which he explained was Fox in a langue his mother spoke fluently.

"Sure, we got loads of stuff, so why not?" Barnette looked over at the hoard of jewelry, guns, clothing, cosmetics, and games that went from board games and all the way to old Arcade style games.

"I second that." Alex voiced his opinion as he picked up the Chess board with its pieces in position. "I'll see you girls… later." Alex sang, leaving them to themselves. Paiway was behind him, playing with her new puppet, which she named Kit, since Alex told her it was the name for the baby's in Japanese. "So, you want me to help you, or can you take care of it?" Alex asked, looking down at the happy nurse.

"How could you help Paiway? Bark!!!" Paiway's new puppet asked. Alex smiled behind his mask and made her follow him to his room, place the new Chess set on his desk while he began working with his Laptop. Maya appeared a few seconds later, talking to Paiway and her two puppets.

"How is this going to help?" Paiway asked, blinking as she stared at his odd wallpaper. "Why is there a naked woman on your computer?" She inquired.

"I drew it, and since I liked it so much, I put it on my desktop. Why, you want me to draw you or something?" Paiway blushed madly at that, momentarily thinking about it.

She looked down at the wallpaper, then over to Alex, who was now playing with his computer, linking it to the systems of the Nirvana with the help of Maya, then back to the wallpaper before saying, "You wouldn't make me like that, would you?" while pointing to the wallpaper.

"Not all my papers are like this one." He moaned. "Alright, let's have some fun, shall we?" Paiway smiled as Alex popped his fingers. "Alright, what do you want the message to say?" Alex looked up at Paiway, eyes closed so tight that she knew he was smiling.

"Tell them that there's a bunch of loot in the Recreation Room. Tell them to hurry before Jura hogs all the Jewelry." She told him, her two puppets speaking in unison with her. Alex typed in the message, and then waited for the stamped that would soon follow down his corridor. Not two minutes later, there was a loud roar of feet that ran past them, both smiling as they began playing Chess.

(-)

Hibiki sat there. He just stared at his reflection in the water, his eyes lingering on his beaten form. He lost. AND to make matters worse, he was protected by the Demon. He hated himself for relying on others, especially women and the Demon. Why did he even save him in the first place? Wouldn't it had been easier just to let him die to Rabat, rather then save him? Hibiki really didn't know, nor did he want to know. All he knew was that he was protected and he hated it.

"I can't believe I was protected by him." Hibiki growled, punching his own reflection. "I'll beat him next time I see him." He paused. "Use my own words, huh? It would be easier if I had an audience that wouldn't laugh at me."

"When you get on your own stage, I won't laugh." Meia said, listening from the top of the bridge. Her back was turned to his, and her arms resting on the railing. "I promise that I won't laugh, and I don't think Alex or anyone else will for that matter. Alex only stood up for Dita I think."

"That Demon is nothing more then a demon and will always hate me for something they did." Hibiki stated, his eyes scanning his reflection at the waters edge.

"Trust me, we won't laugh." Hibiki turned to find her gone, with only her words remaining behind. Hibiki slowly stood up and stared at the stars.

_You won't laugh, huh? How am I supposed to find my own words when I never had any to begin with? _


	9. Recording in Progress

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 9 Recording in Progress

The Bridge Bunnies all stared at the blue world before them. It was rather beautiful from space, but down on it might be a different matter. The Bridge Bunnies, Magno, BC, Meia, and Alex all stared at the strange aquatic world, though Alex had his attention elsewhere at the moment.

"So, what can you tell about this world?" Magno asked.

"Ezra, what's your religion?" Alex was way off on his answer to Magno's question. She had half a mind to just hit him with her cane and ask him again. Ezra stuttered over her words for a few minutes, flabbergasted by his question to her. "The correct answer would be, "My religion is my own beliefs and none of your business"." Alex told her. "But to answer your question, these people are extremely religious." Alex turned to face Magno. "These people believe in some strange God that they swear talks to them." 

"And what's so wrong with that?" BC questioned as she placed a hand on her hip. "Don't tell me that in your treaties you force people into your religious beliefs." Alex rolled his eyes as he answered her question.

"Actually, we don't force our religion on them, since we believe that people have a right to believe in whatever it is you want. I've been to a few worlds that actually worship the Devil and a few other strange religions. One's beliefs are there own and who are we to stop them from doing so?" Alex told them.

"What's your religion?" Ezra asked, turning the question back on Alex. Alex blinked and shrugged, but decided to answer anyway.

"Jashin." He stated with a hint of amusement in his voice. Magno was the only one to go wide eyed at this, though the playful look in his eyes made that hard to believe. "Actually, my religion is my own business and truly none of your own. The one I just used is a fake as far as I know. But that aside, these people are a little strange." Alex told them, returning to his serious demeanor.

"How so?" Meia asked with a brow raised at the Chess board before her. She was playing Maya at the moment, and losing badly. Maya actually had kicked her butt thirty times in the past ten minutes, bringing laughter to the crew on the bridge.

"These people don't have any weapons as far as we know. In fact, I don't think they have any power in the city, other than the screen they used to talk to the outside world. In fact, I went down there personally with my team after the Taraaku incident to see about a treaty. They told me that their God will always watch them and protect them from everything." Alex paused, placing a finger to his chin. "But come to think of it, they always mentioned something about a great moment in their life when their God would return to them to gain the Spiral Code, whatever that means."

"Spiral Code?" BC questioned.

"Odd huh?" Alex mussed walking over to Meia. Alex blinked and stared at the board for a few minutes. When Meia looked up at him, he snatched up a piece and put it beside a Knight and declared, "Check Mate," as he walked back over to Amarone. Maya began a long line of curses, most used in different languages that no one could translate, which probably was a good thing.

"What do you know about this code?" Ezra asked, sounding rather interested at the moment.

"Not much, other then that it sounds like a load of bull if you ask me." Alex snapped, walking over to Meia again and repeating the same process earning her another quick victory. "Other than that, don't expect much from this place. I doubt they could surprise us with anything other than sheer stupidity."

The alarms began blaring loudly. Alex and Meia both growled as they left the bridge, heading for the hanger. BC began shouting for the Dread teams to launch.

(-)

"Damn it all!" Hibiki roared, running out of his room and down the hallway. A blinding light instantly slammed into him, stopping him cold in his tracks. Once he was use to the light, he was able to make out two images; one was Jura with a smirk on her face a finger pointed at him while the other was Barnette with a video camera.

"Today's the day you combine with me to make an elegant machine." Jura declared, pointing at a less than amused Hibiki. Hibiki sighed, and walked off, now less motivated to fight. Jura however, watched with eyes of determination as she motioned her friend to follow her. "Come on Barnette, I'm not going to lose to Dita today!" She declared, running off towards the hanger bay.

(-)

"Alex," Meia called. Alex looked up from Wing Zero's hatch, waiting for her to continue. "I think you should take the Freedom today. I got a bad feeling." She told him.

"Don't worry Meia, I'll be fine. And besides, this is my first machine and I'm better with it then the Freedom, despite what you may think." He informed her, climbing into the machine. Meia sighed as she climbed into her machine, ready to fight the oncoming enemy.

(-)

"The teams are beginning to launch." Amarone announce as she looked at the target before them. Alex's machine was the first thing to be seen as Wing Zero's wings spread out, making it look like an angel once more. "I'll never get over that machine looking like that." She told them. Ezra and the other bridge bunnies all nodded at this, watching as the team flew behind and beside it as they made all hast towards the enemy.

"What's the strange thing with them?" Alex asked as his face and voice appearing on screen.

"We don't know yet, but try to take it out if you can." BC informed him. "We'll keep you posted on our findings, so just stay sharp out there."

"Rodger that." Alex and Meia said in unison. Alex sighed and activated his com one more time, this time to Meia. "Meia, if you can clear out the fighters or keep them in an area that won't put your fighters in harm; I can use the Twin Buster Rifle to tear that thing apart." He announced.

"Good idea, but remember to warn us before firing!" She reminded. Alex nodded and cut the communication. _I still think you should have used the Freedom._ She mussed. _Something still feels off today. I hope I'm wrong._

The fighting began with the Dread teams sending a wave of missiles towards the enemy. Most of the missiles hit, via the surprise the machines were faced with, but once they realized what was going on, those that were far enough away from the first wave, instantly began dodging and firing towards the Dread team while protecting a strange device that really looked like some kind of sea creature to Dita.

Hibiki was slicing his way through the enemy's one at a time. His twin swords were doing pretty good, and when all else failed, Jura was more then happy to save his butt. But luck wasn't on his side as one machine quickly did a head-butt maneuver to send him sailing towards the planet. A quick blast from Dita, and the beast was no more. "Mr. Alien, are you alright?" Dita asked, worry evident in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He groaned, rubbing his head slightly. Why was that every time she came near him, he seemed to get an itch on his head, and if it wasn't an itch, it was a headache?

"Dita, don't you dare try to combine with him today!" Jura roared, flying in to save them as three more cubes began heading for them. A quick blast had the three machines were nothing but space junk. "So, shall we combine now?" She asked playfully.

"Enough with the combining crap already!" Hibiki roared.

"I'm the only one who's allowed to combine with Mr. Alien!" Dita added, sticking her tongue out at the blond haired woman.

"Enough with the combing crap just shoot these damn things!" Alex roared, slicing two more cubes with his saber. "Meia, see if you can draw the enemy away from the machine so I can get a clear shot!" He barked.

"All Dread units try to get the enemy to follow you away from the machine, if they won't then leave them. I'm sure that Alex's weapon can take care of them." She ordered. In a flash, all the Dread units were behind Alex, waiting for him to fire. "Alright Alex, all Dread units have been pulled back." Meia announced.

"Locked onto the target." Alex announced, sounding rather robotic at the moment. A split second later, two tubes of yellow energy went sailing into the large unidentified machine, killing most of the Cubes as it went. A cloud of dust obscured the impact, making it difficult to see anything. When the dust settled, Alex was sputtering ever kind of curse word he could think of. "How in the bloody hell did it survive that without taking a single scratch?!" Alex demanded. The odd machine had taken no damage from the attack, not even a single scratch lay on the hull of the thing. The Dread units had no answer to this riddle, and with the new arrivals of Cube units, they really didn't have that much of a choice in the matter.

Alex, pissed off to no end now, pulled out a beam saber and went to work, slicing apart anything he deemed not human. Hibiki was beside him doing the same, but with Dita and Jura beside him, chanting about combining with him. Alex kept screaming at them to stop whining about who would do what with him, and told them to start fighting the enemy rather then each other. With a quick yell from Hibiki, the two men went racing into the new horde of enemies, slicing anything that dared to get in their way.

"Demon, there's too many of them!" Hibiki screamed, slicing two more in half. "We've got to come up with a plan of some kind."

"Good idea, I'll get back to you when I have one!" He yelled, firing his Vulcan rounds into another cube. Alex really had no plan at the moment. He was just winging it, and it seemed to be working, for the most part anyways.

Meia was having a much harder time, since she was trying to penetrate the strange machine, but the cubes proved to be smarter than what they originally thought since they started combining to form a shield and protect the craft from all rounds that were fired at it. Meia lead another team into the danger zone, blasting away at the hull of the machine, but watching as ever shot bounced off from the new arrival of cubes.

"Damn it!" Meia cursed, making a U turn to escape the new arrivals. "All Dread teams switch to pattern Beta Green!" Meia ordered, switching up her tactics. The Dread teams all gave a muttered "Rodger," say for one lone unit. "Jura, do you understand?! Jura?!" Meia began checking all frequencies for her final member before a loud long line of curses once again broke out, this time coming from Hibiki.

Another Cube exploded beside Meia, momentarily shocking her. She looked up to see Alex flying towards the planet at a rather fast pace. Her eyes then landed on what he was speeding towards. _I hate it when I'm right. _Meia groaned as she watched Jura's Dread and Hibiki's golden Vanguard go crashing into the atmosphere of the planet. "Alex, pull back! There's nothing you can do!" Meia ordered.

"Meia, if I don't go down there, then there's a strong chance they might die!" Alex protested. "Listen, I know you think you're right, and you probably are, but the fact still remains that…" The radio went dead as Alex began entering the atmosphere of the planet.

"Meia, all enemy units have been dealt with." Barnette said. A few other pilots confirmed this and slowly began heading back towards the Nirvana.

"Rodger that." She sighed. She too turned tail towards the ship as she waited for any sign that would tell her she needed to go down. When she got the hanger, she was ready to kill Alex for doing two things. One was that he disobeyed her orders in choosing a machine. The second was that he went down without being told and disobeying her orders. She really was going to kill him when he got back, that was, if he could get back.

(-)

"We have visual on the Wing Zero, Ma'am." Belvedere announced. Magno grunted, showing she understood as a screen popped up with a white mass heading towards the water at a fast pace. A pair of small white wings instantly opened up before its main wings followed. Alex was stopped almost instantly as he began searching the area for the missing pilots. "Alex, we have you on visual." Belvedere told him.

Alex's face and voice appeared a few seconds later. "Belvedere, can you give me their last known coordinates?" He asked, flying towards the last spot he had seen them.

"They're at least two miles northeast of your position." She replied. "You should also know that about twenty Cube types managed to follow you down, so please be careful.

"Rodger that." He replied before the screen that displayed his face disappeared. Ezra sighed as she began worrying about him. She knew he was a great pilot, but the fact still remained that he was basically alone on a world he classified as 'Crazy'.

"Don't worry about him, Ezra." Ezra turned to her captain with eyes of confusion. "He won't die so easily. For that, you have my word." She said as she stood up. "BC, prepare a shuttle to head down to the planet. I want to visit our ancestors and see what they've been up to." BC nodded and made the call to begin preparing a shuttle for launch.

"Captain." Meia's voice and face appeared on screen. "I'll be heading down with you, if you don't mind that is."

"No, someone needs to stay up here incase of an attack." She told her. "I think the enemy is planning to do something with these people and it would be in our best interest to make sure it doesn't happen."

"Yes Ma'am." Meia said, cutting off the communication. Meia sighed as she stared at the controls of her cockpit. _He really should have listened to me. _She moaned as she jumped out of her machine.

(-)

"Okay, so do we know the status of Jura and Hibiki?" Magno asked, turning serious again.

"We've locked onto their location now ma'am." Celtic replied. "We're about to transmit the data to Alex in a few seconds ma'am."

"Good." Magno turned to face BC. "As soon as he's found them, make sure that they're safe and can move to a secure location. I don't want them getting into any trouble until I've had time to get to know the people better."

"_Ah, what the hell is this thing?!" _Jura's voice rang out over the com net finally. It brought some relief to everyone until the image of a large red crab floating in the sky was brought on screen.

"What is that thing?" Belvedere asked.

"It's a giant crab." Amarone stated, sounding not so surprised.

"_What's a crab?" _Alex's voice appeared over the net a few seconds later. The woman all gasped at his question until his image appeared. They soon realized why he asked such a question as he appeared to flying away from their location with twelve cube types in hot pursuit.

(-)

Alex growled as he continued his search for the missing fighters. His patience with them was growing rather thin at the moment, but then again, they had crashed landed in the water and were probably hundreds of miles down with his luck.

"This sucks major ass!" He growled as he maneuvered his machine to do another pass over the last coordinates he was told that the duo crashed landed at. "This is hopeless. I should have just stayed up in space to help out with the fight rather than play recon!" He yelled as his machine started making another pass.

_How in the hell am I going to find them when all I can see is this stupid water?! Note to self: Next time, listen to Meia's advice. This can't get any… _Alex's thoughts were cut off as his machine went crashing into the water vie cube fire that pounded into his side. Wing Zero went crashing into the water hard with a cursing Alex along for the ride. 

The white machine slowly rose from the water, flying out of the water with an evil appearance as it blasted two of the machines away. The remaining cubes quickly began heading towards the city. Alex growled as he quickly flew in front of them, turning to destroy those close enough to him without once shooting into the water. Once he was able to destroy five of the eighteen cube types, he then proceeded to the city to defend it.

"_It's a crab." _Amarone's sounded a few seconds later.

"What's a crab?" Alex asked, flapping his wings to hover over two more cubes, both of which were quickly destroyed.

"_Take a look." _Amarone commanded with a hint of amusment in her voice. Alex did as requested and instantly broke into fits of laughter as he both listened to Jura's cries of disgustion and flailing arms as it tried to hit two of the cube types. It had already managed to smack one away, but with limited control of both hands and arms, it made it pretty much useless… until someone slammed on the right button or something and sent eight beams from the eight disks that hovered beside it, into multiple directions, most of which killed the remaining cubes, though one survived for about two seconds since Alex had finally come from his fits of laughter and sliced the poor thing in half.

Alex continued to laugh as he began opening a com channel to the red crab. "Hibiki, Jura, are you all aright?" He asked, still laughing every few seconds. Hibiki's face instantly appeared, though was quickly replaced with a crying Jura before she was thrown aside so Hibiki could talk.

"Demon, I think this thing is pretty much useless since it has no real good weapons." He told him, totally deflecting the question. Alex growled at Hibiki, showing him that he had very little patience as of now. "We're both fine, though I could be wrong about Jura though." He motioned to the whining blond that was acting more like a five year old that didn't get its favorite candy at the moment. "We've detected a city not to far from here; you think we should head for it?"

"Yeah, but keep your wits about and your eyes pealed." Alex told him, pushing on his controls to send his machine flying towards the tiny speck of land in the distance. "These people are really nuts and it would be in our best interest to not piss them off since I really don't feel like blowing them up."

"Didn't stop you from doing it to us." Hibiki grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest. Alex instantly had his rifle pointed at where he hoped the cockpit was and showing that he was ready to fire. "Sorry!" Hibiki yelped, not wanting to get shot. Alex slowly lowered the weapon, but also gave him the finger on both the screen and through his machine which, seemed to agree actually.

(-)

"Both Jura, Alex, and Hibiki are all safe, Ma'am." Amarone announced, sounding somewhat amused.

"Good." Magno stood up and slowly began walking towards the door with BC. "Tell them to meet us at the city." Amarone nodded and slowly began delivering the message. "Oh, before forget." Magno pressed a button that opened up a com channel to a not so very impressed or happy Bart at the moment. He was in the chamber and naked as usual. "Bart, I'm leaving you in charge of this ship." She announced. Bart saluted then quickly blinked in confusion. "If you run off and leave us, I swear I'll make Alex kill you slowly." She threatened. Bart gulped and nodded in reply as the link was cut.

"_Yes ma'am." _He gulped. The women all snickered at him as Magno slowly stood up to leave with BC in tow.

(-)

"Are you two alright?" Alex questioned again as he leapt from his machine to the ground. The duo had split back to their normal forms and was currently resting on the bay of the island or city if you could call it that anyways.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I think Jura might be really down right now." Hibiki admitted as he stuck a thumb out at the sulking Jura. Alex shook his head, but knew why she was so depressed at the moment. He really couldn't blame her. "So, now what do we do?" Hibiki asked.

"We need to wait for someone to show up with a transport to pick us up. I don't know about Jura's Dread, but I can't get back into space without a transport or rocket pack." Alex sighed as he looked up into the sky for a moment before turning back to Jura. "Let me talk to her." Hibiki nodded as Alex slowly walked over to the sobbing woman.

_Demon, how could you feel sympathy for someone like her?_ Hibiki thought as he watched him sit next to her. _Could I be wrong about you? No, I'm right. I have to be right about you._

"Hey, Jura, you okay?" Alex asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Jura didn't reply. "Come on Jura, tell me what's wrong."

"I don't wanna talk about it." She managed. Alex sighed. This was getting him nowhere fast. Alex however, was at a loss.

"Come on Jura, don't be down about this." Alex pleaded, moving to sit in front of her. Jura didn't look at him; she just stared at the red hull of her machine with sad eyesHibiki HHHihH. "Jura, please say something to me." Alex pleaded again.

"I don't wanna talk about it." She cried, curling up into a ball as she sat on her machine with the same look.

Hibiki just sighed as he watched the two talk, knowing that Alex probably wouldn't get anywhere with her at the moment since she was in a sulking mood. Rather than stay around and try to convince him that he would have no luck in changing her mood anytime soon.

"Nice to see you all made it down safely." Magno announced her presence as she walked over to the three fighters with BC by her side. Alex was to busy trying to get Jura into a better mood to notice and Jura was to busy pouting over her 'Ugly' and 'Useless' transformation to notice her leader. Hibiki was a little happy to see her, considering that she did come down to rescue them. "You two gave us quite a scare up there. We really thought you to be dead for a little while until you appeared in your new form." She snapped Hibiki back to reality with that.

"Yeah well, I guess I have Jura to think for that, but…" Hibiki looked back at the two figures, trying to find the best words at the moment. "I don't think she's to happy about it though." He whispered.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be back to normal in a few hours. So don't sweat it." BC informed him. Hibiki nodded and started following Magno and BC down the paved roads till they came to a group of people. One in particular was in someway to Hibiki, rather odd looking. Something about her just screamed 'Crazy' to him. The woman had long blond hair and was wearing a blue dress. "Sorry about the crash landing with our fighters." BC said, bowing to the woman. "We didn't intend for them to come to the planet's surface with their weapons."

"That is quite alright." The woman said, raising a hand to stop any of BC's further apologies. "My name is Terri (A/N. I have no idea what her name was, but I decided to use someone's that kind of fits the bill on the insanity level) and this is our beautiful world. It is the most beautiful planet in the universe."

Magno scrunched up her nose at this. "And pray tell how you can believe this is the most beautiful planet in the universe." She demanded.

"Our Gods brought us here, showing us the most beautiful world of this universe. They have given us everything we need to stay alive and have looked over us since we first arrived on our beautiful world." She replied with a smile.

"I see." Magno replied, nodding at this. Magno began looking around the place, noticing a lot of decorations and welcoming signs. It almost seemed like they were going to welcome someone back or something like that. "Looks like you've got quite a party planed. What's the occasion?" 

"Our Gods will be coming today." Magno raised a brow at the woman. "Today is the day that we have all been waiting for. It will mark as the day we all become one with our saviors." Terri answered, bowing her head and clasping her hands together to look as though she was praying.

"I see." Magno nodded, understanding the women's reason for the party. "But what is this about a 'Spiral Code'?"

Terri blinked in surprise, but smiled as she placed a white mask on and began leading the group to a large building in the center of the city. It looked like a light tower that would keep boats from hitting the rocks, but its location stopped that thought cold. "This is our place to speak to our Gods, and is the question that they left for us to answer." Terri stated, walking into the center of the room. "This is what they told us to build one day, and also gave us a riddle to solve as payment. We have long searched for the answer, but we still have yet to find it like we promised."

"Some riddles are impossible to find." BC mussed, looking at all the odd drawings on the wall. One in particular was the image of a praying figure with a spiral appearing out of its back. "Spiral Code…" BC whispered to herself. Her eyes widened as she played it over and over in her head. "Spinal Cord!" She turned to Magno who was already aware of the situation. "Captain, we need to get out of here." She whispered as the blond haired woman continued to preach about their Gods.

(-)

"How are things looking right now?" Meia asked Amarone.

"Things appear to be normal right now, but that strange machine has yet to take any form of damage from anything we've…" Alarms began blaring loudly as the Bridge Bunnies began trying to find the reason.

"Report!" Meia demanded.

"We've detected twenty Cube types and another strange machine that is coming up behind the unknown target, directly in front of the Nirvana." Celtic stated, turning to face Meia.

"_What should we do?!" _Bart yelled from inside the Navigation Chamber.

"What else, send out the Dread Teams!" Meia yelled as she ran towards the hanger.

(-)

"Our Gods have arrived." Terri announced, a smile forming on her lips. Magno narrowed her eyes on the woman. "You are just in time to see our Gods."

"These 'Gods' of yours are only here for your 'Spinal Cords' not the 'Spiral Code'." BC told her, sounding rather impatient at the moment.

"That is what the last group of none believers said to us." Terri replied.

"Last group of none believers?" Hibiki asked. BC turned around to answer her com as it began ringing. "What do you mean by that?"

"There was once a group of none believers that came to our world hoping for an alliance, but they left when we told them that we didn't want to be want to be with them." Terri answered.

"Alex…" Magno mussed. "What makes you think your Gods are here for this Spiral Code?"

"Captain," BC whispered. Magno began to ignore Terri's speech about her Gods. "We've detected a fleet of Cubes and another strange machine. We need to get out of here." She whispered.

"…our Gods will be pleased if you have our riddles answer." Magno finally tuned back into Terri's discussion on her Gods.

"Your Gods are only here for your Backbones and nothing more." Magno told her. Terri quickly narrowed her eyes on Magno through her mask. "Your so called, 'Gods' are only here to harvest your body parts for their own." 

"You're a none believer as well, I see." Terri snorted. Magno growled at the woman's sudden change in demeanor. "You will feel our Gods wrath for your insolence."

"Old Lady, what are we going to do?" Hibiki asked in a panic sounding tone.

Magno grunted as she fell to her knees placing a hand to her back as she tried to stand back up. Both BC and Hibiki instantly ran to her with worry in their eyes. "I'm not going to die here." Magno said, a smile hidden from Terri's view. Hibiki smiled as he understood the meaning in it, and quickly ran off to find Jura.

"He will fall to our Gods." Terri snickered. Magno and BC just narrowed their eyes on the woman as she went into another rant about the power of her Gods.

(-)

Hibiki continued to the bay were he left his machine. He had to get back into space to help out the others. He had to do it, there was no other way around that. He finally came to the spot where he left his machine, along with Wing Zero and Jura's Dread, which still had a depressed Jura and a very warn out Alex on top.

"Hey Jura, we need to go and help the others!" Hibiki yelled, interrupting Alex. Jura didn't reply and Alex only sighed as Hibiki gave him a strange look. "Look, we need to go help the others or we're all going to die." No reply. "Jura, I know you're upset over how your machine looked, but looks aren't everything you know?" Jura shot him a very unimpressed look as he began scratching the back of his head.

"Jura, beauty isn't skin deep." Alex began trying the same approach that Hibiki was about to take up. "The Wing Zero was an ugly machine when mom first got it, and that thing was only beaten once in battle. Wing Zero wasn't beautiful, but it was powerful. Maybe your combination is the same way."

"Demon's right, look at Meia's combination. It's ugly, and that's a lot coming from me, but it can still do amazing things. It's faster than the other Dreads and Freedom, and its stronger then the Wing Zero." Hibiki stated. No reply, though she did place a hand to her chin. "And Dita's combination is the same way. It's not pretty either, but its really strong and heavily armored. It's not fast or pretty, but it can send almost every enemy flying." Jura turned to the two men. "Come on, let's give it one more try. I'm sure that your combination can do something truly amazing." Alex smiled towards Hibiki, and watched as Jura slowly stood up, dusting her dress, and pointing a finger at them.

"Alright, we'll try it one more time, and this time we'll be doing things my way." She declared. Alex and Hibiki both grinned, though Alex's grin was more to the fact that she was up and about, rather than down and out. The three got back in their respected machines and took off towards the skies.

(-)

"Dita, get around it!" Barnette yelled as she shot down another Cube. Dita was beside her, firing at anything she declared as a 'Bad Alien', much to the amusement of those around her as she screamed "Bad Aliens" over and over again, though it was often replaced with, "I must be strong for Mr. Alien and Mr. Suit" every time someone asked her why she was now fighting so hard. For the Dread team, it was making life a little bit easer since they didn't have to truly keep an eye on her at all times.

"Barnette, three more coming from behind you." Meia told her, shooting two more down. Meia blasted another Cube as Barnette and Dita broke apart before doing a U-turn to fly straight at one another. A few seconds before they would have crashed, they dove off in separate directions, letting the Cubes crash into each other. "Good job." Meia declared, targeting three more Cubes.

"We've got another wave incoming." Another pilot yelled.

"Begin attack pattern Alpha Yellow!" Meia barked, heading into position with her own orders. "We need to change up our attack patterns every chance we get, so we can prevent them from getting the basics on our flight strategies." She informed them as eight Cubes suddenly became target practice for a very happy Barnette and Dita, as loud reply of "Rodger" rang out a few seconds later. The enemy cubes were quickly dispatched by both Dita and Barnette.

"Our weapons still aren't piercing the unknown unit though!" Barnette stated, doing another bombing run on the hull of the strange machine. "We need more firepower to break the hull of it if we want to destroy it!" She finished.

"Locked on to the target." Alex announced his presence with that line and one very large tube of energy that went sailing towards the unknown machine. The blast hit with dead on accuracy, but the machine took no damage from the attack. As soon as Alex appeared and fired his weapon, he quickly flew away as Vandread Jura once again appeared.

"Alex, what the hell have you got to say for…" Meia began.

"Meia, dear, please shut up and watch the new combination in action." Alex interrupted her as he flew to the side of her machine just a Vandread Jura made its grand appearance. Meia growled, but did so as she began watching the large crab hover above the planet.

"Alright, let's show them the power of Vandread Jura!" Hibiki declared. Jura nodded in agreement as she pressed a glowing button on her panel. The combination instantly reacted as it slammed its tiny arms together before sending out its eight disks to cover the entire planet with a green barrier. The surprise was short lived as the strange machine began trying to suck them into its red mouth. Hibiki just smiled as he yelled, "Thirst, have some water!" and slam on his control panel to open a small portion inside the circle the combination made before the large disk began spinning. The next thing everyone knew, a large twister made of water came shooting from the planet and into the machines mouth. The duo smirked as the machine instantly began to bulge from overloading on the water before exploding.

"Now that's an elegant machine!" Jura exclaimed as she clasped her hands together with a smile on her face.

(-)

Terri fell to the floor onto her knees. Her masked cracked as it hit the floor. Her breathes were short and deep as she tried to process all the events that just took place. She didn't know how, but it did. "How… how could you do this to our Gods?" She managed as her piercing glare leveled with that of Magno's cold eyes. "How could you kill our Gods?!" 

"Gods' work in unseen ways and never demand for sacrifices…" She snarled. Terri just glared at her as she continued her speech. "Gods' work behind the scenes of our lives and only help when it's truly needed. They give us a simple push in the right direction when we get lost."

"Captain, the transport is ready." BC stated. Magno nodded and slowly began to leave, all the while wondering if what she did was right. She figured that she did wrong, but she saved their lives, so it was a touchy subject to say the least.

(-)

Hibiki was floored. He had no idea on what to think at the moment. Alex had to agree with him on the question he had just been asked. They both sighed as they listened to Jura brag about her combination. Hibiki turned to Alex and asked, "Demon, why do women always change their minds about everything so quickly?" while shooting him a strange expression.

Alex thought about that for a moment before sighing to himself as he tried to think of an answer. "You know what, I really have no idea." He admitted.

"But you've lived on a colony with women! How can you say that you have no idea?" He blurted.

"Hibiki, there are things I know, and things that I don't know. This is one of them." He stuck his thumb out at Jura. "Listen, it's something that you'll just have to get use to." He told him as he walked away.

"…and I doubt that YOU can put up a barrier like I did, Dita!" those were the last words Alex heard before slipping back into the Recreation Room where a slightly pissed off Meia sat.

The door closed, and Meia turned her glare to Alex. Alex sighed as he walked over to the table and took a seat on the black side of the board. Meia just continued to glare at him as he waited for her to move her first piece. Alex finally looked up, a smile on his lips, though hidden by his mask he still wore. "Smoke before fire?" Meia slammed a Pawn down as she moved it two spaces forward. "Fire before smoke I see." Alex moaned as he repeated her move, though he didn't slam his.

"You disobeyed my orders!" She slammed another poor Pawn into place. Alex scrunched up his nose, though this too was hidden from view thanks to his mask. "I told you not to follow, and you did so anyways. I also believe I told you to take the Freedom, and you decided to take Wing Zero."

"I love it when you're angry with me, you know that?" Alex stated, moving another Pawn to match hers. Meia growled at his attempt to change the subject before smirking and trying the same tactic.

"I love it when you decided to change the subject." Alex began laughing as he fell to the floor from his own fits of laughter. Meia instantly glared at him as she got back on subject. "Why did you disobey me?!" she yelled as her Knight was put into place rather hard.

"For starters, I've been piloting Wing Zero for eight years. I've only been the pilot for Freedom for about two and half." Alex placed his Knight in front of hers. "I've had more experience in Wing Zero and I know how to use it better than my fathers' machine." He took her Knight with a Pawn. "I know that you think you know me better then I know myself, but the truth is that I know myself AND you better then I know how to pilot the Freedom." Meia narrowed her eyes as he continued. "You believe that you know everything about me because we've been good friends for a few months now, but the fact remains that you don't know anything about me."

Alex sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Listen Meia, I'm sorry about not obeying your orders, but I've followed orders like the one you gave me, and I was unable to protect everyone like I promised I would." Meia's eyes softened at this. "I know I told you that I only failed two people, but those people were precious to me and I knew them better then I knew the other soldiers. I'm sorry for disobeying you, so I'll make a promise with you." Meia sat up for this. "If you promise to let me use whatever machine I chose, I promise to listen to all of your orders whenever you give me one. Does that sound fare?" Alex stuck out his hand and waited for her to shake it. Meia smiled and did so, smiling as she shook his hand.

"Deal, but I also want you to help teach me how to play Chess better than what you have been." Alex nodded.

(-)

Magno stood before a whining Bart as he rang off everything that he found wrong with the ship in her absence. Magno had to agree with him on almost every single one, though a few were ones she had tried to fix in the past and failed miserably.

"You don't have any form of rules or laws that they must abide by, and to make it worse, you left me, a prisoner, in charge of everything while you were away." Bart stated as he waved his hands around. "Do you have any idea on how crazy that is?!"

"No Bart, I have no idea." She lied, smiling as she spoke to the enraged helmsman.

Bart sighed as he slumped back to his cell, aiming for a long and undisturbed sleep that he really needed.


	10. Merry Birthday

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 10 Merry Birthday

Alex smiled as he looked at the calendar. He was slightly depressed that he couldn't spend it with his family, but decided that this would be better than at the colony since he would have had to spend most of his time with his adopted brother, helping in buying gifts. Yes, it was Christmas, and he was spending his twenty third Christmas with his new friends/family.

"I wonder if they still celebrate Christmas on Mejarru." Alex thought out loud. He shrugged and walked out of his room. It was still too early for anyone to be up, so he had most of the ship to himself, say for the night shift. Sighing, he decided to head to the Gym to work on whatever he felt like at the moment. He really had nothing else to do, other than walk around the ship with no real destination in mind. He walked down the halls of the ship as he took in the sights of a few people already about and working in the Bio Garden. They were putting up Christmas stuff.

He smiled at the sight before him as he turned around to head back down into the corridor before a loud explosion took place inside the Bio Garden. Alex spun around and ran towards the garden with all speed. Once he was at the source of the explosion, he wasn't too surprised by his findings.

"Ow shoot!" Parfait screamed. Alex sighed as he watched her crawl out of a strange device while rubbing the smoke and black smug off her face. "I wonder what happened this time." She pouted.

"What's wrong, Parfait?" Alex asked, walking over to the stunned Tech. Parfait looked up at him with a smile as he helped to her feet.

"Well I'm trying to get this machine to work for the Christmas celebration we're having today." She answered as she finished washing her face. "Unfortunately, this is the second time it's done that. I need to get it working before the end of the day, or Christmas will be ruined." She pouted.

Alex looked at the inside of the machine with a brow raised. He whistled at the level of damage done to the machine just from a simple explosion. He sighed as he lifted his arm so he could look talk to his PDA. "Maya, you awake?"

The blue ball the represented Maya appeared. "Sorry, do you need help in killing something?" She asked in a sleepy tone. Parfait arched a brow at the AI's words.

"No, I need you to help Parfait in getting this thing working." Alex pointed at the interior of the machine while giving Parfait a strange look. Maya began scanning the device for any problems and possible ways to fix the machine. "Something wrong?"

"Why did your AI just ask if you need help killing something?" She motioned the AI with a weary thumb.

"Oh, that's because I normally do missions in the morning or before midnight." Parfait still felt weary around the AI. Alex sighed. "She has human emotions and has the same kind of energy levels like we do. She needs to sleep like us, so that's why she was just asking that question the way she did."

"So she needs to sleep like us?" Parfait asked. Alex nodded. "So the reason she just asked that, is because she follows you on missions?" Alex nodded again. "So she just now woke up?" Alex nodded. "So her creator wanted to make sure that she was as human as she could be?" She realized.

"Yeah, my mom wanted to make her as human as she could so she would learn from her mistakes just like a human. Though she never really makes mistakes, she often feels as though she does, but she truly never does."

"Who ever made this, was definitely an idiot." Maya announced as she reappeared before the two. Parfait glared at the AI for her words before turning back to Alex. "But I'll give the creator credit for trying to make a machine this complicated. If I knew what it was designed to do, then it might be easier to determine the function of this device."

"Well, heres the creator." Alex motioned Parfait with a grin hidden by his mask. "You think you can help in getting it to work?"

"I'm sure it would be possible, but does she even know what she was trying to make?"

"Yes, I'm trying to make a snow machine!" Parfait growled. Maya floated to her side as she began trying to make amends for her words earlier.

"See you two later, and don't kill each other." Alex said as he walked away. The two girls instantly began chatting as they tried to fix the machine so that snow would be possible for this special day.

(-)

Barnette sighed as she walked out of the storage room where they kept all the food. She was not very happy, but the chance to get a good present from Jura was more than worth the amount of stress she would be under. Sighing, she grabbed the last crate that she would need to make her cake. As she began picking the horde of crates up, she soon realized that her vision was almost completely blocked.

_Grrr… Jura, I swear if your so called "Good Present" better be good, or I'll be shoving this cake up your ass for the all the stress this is putting me under. _Barnette growled as she walked out into the corridor. _I like this holiday and all, but I can kind of understand where Hibiki gets the whole, "Eat your livers" bit they believe in. I wonder if Alex's people celebrate this holiday. _Barnette's thoughts were cut off as she ran into something hard that sent her flying on her butt. She waited for the crates to crash into her, but after ten seconds of feeling nothing or hearing anything, she opened her eyes to see Alex standing above her, blinking as he held the crates in one hand. "Thanks." She muttered as she stood up.

"You know, I got an Uncle that never asks for help either." Alex told her as he began following the blushing woman. She was a little shy to be seen in her baker clothing in front of Alex for some reason. "Don't worry, I've seen women that cook with nothing on but their undergarments." Alex read her mind.

"Isn't that a little…"

"Strange?" Barnette nodded while they entered the kitchen. "Just place the items over here?" Alex asked. Barnette nodded while he placed them on the kitchen island. "You're making one hell of a large cake for Christmas, you know?"

"Well, I do have to make sure that everyone that likes cake or will be there for the party you know." She told him as she began pulling out the items for her cake. "You like cake?"

"Yeah, but I'm not that big of a fan of it." Alex placed a finger to his chin as he began thinking about that statement. "Though I do find it odd that I'm not a big fan since, mom really likes cakes." Alex shrugged it off as he continued helping her with her task at hand.

"Maybe it's because you're a Super Soldier." She answered. Alex thought about that for a moment before nodding. "I do have a question about that." Alex turned to face her with a curious look in his eye. "I know that all medical technology such as, Medicine, Surgeries, and other things like, all have nasty side affects. So did your operation have one?"

Alex started laughing as he rubbed the back of his head slightly. "Well… you see the only side affect I technically suffered from was my eyes." Barnette blinked in surprise at this. Alex instantly groaned as she moved over to stare at his eyes. "They're normal enough, but it's because of the procedure." Barnette now blinked in confusion. "Okay now, my mother has green eyes and my father had yellow eyes. Now tell me how my eyes could be sapphire blue?"

"They wouldn't be." She told. "Oh, so because of the operation, you had blue eyes, rather than yellow, green, or what ever those two would have made!" She realized. Alex nodded and slowly began walking towards the door to leave. "So where are you going now?"

"Wherever my little heart decides." He sang as he trotted out of the kitchen with a grin hidden by his mask. Barnette just sighed as she glanced down at the large amount of ingredients she had pulled for her cakes.

(-)

"No, I don't think that's right either." Maya stated firmly. Parfait glared at the tiny blue mass as she tried to restrain herself from killing the AI, or attempting to anyways. "These wires need to be placed in this slot, while these need to be placed in this slot." She finished as she started pointing out the wires with a glowing tentacle.

"I still think I'm right though." Parfait moaned. The AI gave out an audible sigh as she floated around the young Tech. An idea suddenly hit Parfait as she stared at the glowing tentacle for a moment. "Hey, Maya, do you have a human form or anything like that?"

"Why yes I do, but why do you ask?" She inquired. Parfait smiled at her little friend before getting down on her knees to look at the inside of her creation.

"Don't you think it would be easier if you were in your human form?" She asked. Maya didn't say anything for a few minutes as she continued scanning the device for any other problems that would cause it to blow up in Parfait's face.

"I suppose it would be easier, but I am still incomplete on that form." Maya admitted. Parfait was floored at this. Here was an AI that had everything but the basic elements that make humans human, and she was incomplete?

"How can that be?" Parfait blurted.

"Well, you see, before I was finished, Alex got shipped to the colony you found me at. Since my creator, Asaugi, wanted him to have as much interaction with humans as possible, she sent me, knowing that he might not truly bond with the citizens, soldiers, doctors, and other people of every class on the colony. Alex has tried to complete me, but every attempt he has made has normally ended in failure. So until I get home, I will remain in this form until Asaugi has completed me." Maya said, bobbing up and down as if to show she was smiling.

"How complicated are you?" Parfait inquired further into this mystery.

"I believe we should be getting back to the original task at hand." Maya stated, sounding somewhat annoyed. "We need to hurry and get your device operational for your party."

"Right." Parfait replied, grinning as she dove back into the mass of circuits again.

(-)

Okay, now Hibiki has enough sense to understand certain things. He has been on the ship for some time and has seen a lot of holidays that he personally never knew existed. His favorite, the only one he was onboard to celebrate mind you, was Thanksgiving. A holiday filled with food, liquor, though juice was handed out for the kiddies, and over stuffed bellies. What lay before him, was another holiday he didn't understand, but knew that food was involved somehow.

"Don't you celebrate Christmas on Taraaku?" Dita asked again, snapping Hibiki back from heaven.

Bart sighed and answered for his drooling friend. "No, not like this anyways." Bart answered, remembering all the thing they did. His commander had forced them into watching a video of women eating men, forced them into combat training for no reason, and then to top it off, they were sent to bed without dinner. Bart shook off the memories as he continued. "I'm sure that you celebrate in a manner without having to watch videos of men doing… whatever it is that you believe we do."

"Actually… we watch videos about Santa Clause." Dita told him. Bart looked down at Dita with a smile. "She's a big old fat lady that hands out gifts to all the nice little children, while giving big bags of coal for those that are naughty." Bart seemed to think about that for a moment. "But you have to go to sleep, otherwise, she won't bring you anything in your sleep."

"Why would she bring gifts to children for no reason?" Bart questioned. "That doesn't make sense." Dita looked at him with confused eyes. "Think about it, if you went around making gifts and the giving them to people, where's your income coming from?"

"What's income?" Dita playfully asked, ditz factor working overtime. Bart sighed and was about to begin his speech about how she should read books or stop acting so dumb, but her attention span had finally reached its limits, and that meant that they were about to start over from scratch again. "Mr. Alien, have you seen the Doctor?" Bart palmed himself. Hibiki shrugged as he continued to stare down at the grassy floor underneath the bridge at the moment, as he tried to see what kind of food they were making, or had already made.

"I think he's in one of the storage rooms we found a few days ago." Bart muttered. "What a nerd." He moaned.

"Come on, let's go find him." Dita told them as she began dragging Hibiki off. Hibiki sighed as he let Dita continue to drag his half asleep body. Bart sighed as he followed his young friend and alien enthused girl towards the storage room that held a curious Pyoro and Duerro, both of which were going through hoards of boxes.

"Hey, McPhail, what is all this?" Hibiki asked, using his surname as he scanned one of the boxes that held photos. Hibiki picked one up that had a picture of a jolly old man in a red and white suit, with two kids on his lap. One was a girl while the other was a girl. Hibiki already had one brow raised as he continued to look through the hoard of pictures.

"I honestly believe they are relicts of this holiday the women celebrate. I believe that our ancestors might have celebrated this holiday for some reason that may have to do with this man in the red suit." He informed them as he placed another photo to the side of the box. "I have also found a few small black boxes that I don't understand on how to use." He showed the said box to the group as he continued going through his own box.

"I believe its some kind of device that shows moving pictures." Pyoro told him as he placed it into a black device that was hooked into a computer. A few seconds later, a fuzzy screen appeared all throughout the Nirvana.

(-)

"Oh cool a movie." Paiway squealed. Paiway and those helping out with the food for the party were watching the video from within the kitchen. A picture of a woman and a child sitting happily on a coach next to a fireplace soon appeared, bringing smiles to all the women on the ship. The image quickly turned confusing as a man walked over to the two and started smiling as he sat beside them. "A man and a woman…together?" Paiway said, her eye twitching in curiosity and confusion.

(-)

Bart, Hibiki, Dita, and Pyoro stared at the image of the smiling family as they started playing games and opening presents. Duerro didn't seem surprised at what he saw, which didn't truly surprise anyone.

"Is that a man sitting next to a woman?" Hibiki and Bart finally blurted.

"It would appear so." Duerro answered with a smile on his face. "Looks like men and women use to get along with one another."

Dita nodded and instantly looked down at the clock on the computer, and then gasped at the time. "Come on Mr. Alien! We're going to miss the comet if we stay in this place!" She told him as she grabbed hold of his wrist again to drag him down the long hallway to the Bio Garden.

"I don't suppose _you_ have any plans, Bart."

"As a matter of fact, I do. Tonight is _the_ night. Lucky for me, I remember my grandfather's manners," he said with a smirk. BC was all alone on the bridge doing some telemetry. While she had said that she would attend the main event later, Bart wanted to do something else before anyone else saw her.

(-)

Meia sat alone in her cockpit, flipping switches and pressing buttons just for the sake of pressing buttons and flipping switches. She was bored, but she wasn't about to go to the party. Years of ditching her own birthday parties that Jura would throw were a clear sign that she didn't like them. The silence that filled the hanger, aside from her activities with her control panel, was tomb-like and gave it a sort of ghostly presence, which was much to Meia's liking.

"So, this is where you are." Meia groaned. She had been found and by one of the people she didn't want to truly be around today. Her figure of annoyance for the day was beside her cockpit and smiling behind his mask he always wore. Yep, it was Alex and he seemed rather happy.

"What do you want, _Alex_?" She put more emphases on his name as if to warn him.

"I wanted to see what everyone was doing before I left." He told her as he jumped down to the floor. Meia watched with one eye as he walked over to Wing Zero. He stopped at the cockpit and turned to look at her with a strange look in his eye. He sighed softly as he climbed inside his machine.

_That went well. _Alex moaned as he climbed inside his machine. He sighed again as he started flipping switches and pressing buttons just to listen to the sounds of flipped switches and pressed buttons.

After one minute of pressing buttons and flipping switches, he sighed, stopped, and the pulled out his sketch book and flipped to a new page. He pulled out a pencil from the confines of the metal rings that bound the pages together. He bit the eraser lightly as he tried to think of something to draw. A thought soon came to his mind, and he slowly started sketching what his mind came up with. Halfway through it, he growled and ripped it from the book so he could crumple it and throw it to the floor of his machine.

After twenty minutes of sketching, ripping the paper free from its bindings, crumpling it into a ball, and then throwing it to the floor of his machine, he sighed and looked down at the mess in his cockpit. "Man, I'm a slob when I draw." He moaned. A banging sound prevented him from starting his creation again, much to his liking. He pressed the button to open his hatch to find Meia above it with a bored look in her eyes. "What do you want?" He asked irritably.

"You should open up your com channel so I can talk to you if I have something I wanna talk about to you." She told with no emotion in her voice. She sounded like she was asleep when she said that, and those sleepy blue eyes proved this.

"Why?" he went back to sketching.

"I have no idea." She tried to look at the work of art he was drawing again. She then noticed the amount of paper that was already crumpled up and sitting at the back of his cockpit. "You're a messy artist."

Alex took in a deep breath as he tried to think of a counter. Nothing came to him. All he had was his paper, the image that was begging to be drawn, and a pencil that wanted to be used. Meia sighed and walked off as she went back to her cockpit. "What do you wanna talk about?"

Meia stopped and walked back over to his cockpit with a brow raised. "I don't know." She moaned. Alex sighed again. God this was odd, even for him.

Meia once again began walking towards her machine, only to stop as an idea came to her, though Alex was the one to voice it. "Hey, you wanna learn how to pilot Wing Zero?" Meia smiled at that, and slowly walked over to the cockpit with a sly smile on her face. "Never mind…" God that was strange.

"Sure, but you better do a better job at teaching me this then you do at Chess." She said as she crawled into the cockpit. Alex smiled as the hatch closed, thanking that his mask and the darkness of the room kept his smile hidden. "Could you hurry this up?" She asked in a panicky tone.

The lights kicked on, and the outside world soon came into view. She smiled at the ability to see outside world again. The machine slowly began to rise to its feet, forcing Meia into Alex's lap. Meia blushed at her current position near Alex as he pushed forward on the controls. Wing Zero quickly blasted out of the hanger, spreading its wings to fly in any direction the two pilots saw fit.

"So, what do you wanna learn about first?" Alex moaned as he began trying to find a comfortable position that would keep him from getting to excited.

"How about how to fly it?" She said sarcastically. Alex rolled his eyes as he pulled her down into his lap and forced her hands over the controls.

"Okay, this is how you maneuver it." He pulled back on the control to show the movement. Meia nodded and took it for a spin, forcing it to do barrel rolls, sway from side to side, and even a few loops. Once Alex was satisfied that she had that down, he moved on. "Okay, now this controls the thrusters." He pulled her hand over the said lever and pulled it back, killing the engines, and then pushed it forward, causing the machine to fly faster than what it original was. "Got it so far?" Meia leaned back and took the controls as she started playing with the machine that destroyed two battle stations. Alex sighed as he leaned back further into the chair, which ended up with her doing the same.

"So how do you work the weapons?"

"Very carefully." He answered. This earned him an elbow to the gut. "Hey, you asked how, and I told you how." He moaned as he rubbed his "Wounded" gut. "Besides, why do you wanna learn this stuff anyways?"

"You asked me, and I figured it would be better than being in that place for the party." She answered, turning to face him with a scowl on her face. "Now teach me, or I won't be very kind." She threatened. Alex rolled his eyes and started teaching her how to use the weapons.

(-)

"Alright, alright, time to strike." Bart whispered to himself. He played with his posture for a bit before wiping a bead of sweat that was forming on his head, with his elbow. It was time for him to strike and show BC just how of a kind person he was. BC was all by herself on the bridge and playing with the controls as she, and anyone else that wasn't so into the party at the moment, watched the Wing Zero do barrel rolls, flips, sway from side to side, and the stop, move forward, stop again, and then repeat the entire process before blasting off towards another area to do something odd.

Bart smiled as he looked down at his small box that held his gift to BC. "Um, Vice Commander." Bart poked his head around the corner of the door frame.

"Come in."

_Alright, so far so good_

"These are the finest tablets made by my company." He handed the small box to her, opening as he handed it. Sparkling gems of every color sparkled with the dim lighting in on the bridge.

"Thank you, Bart. Is that all?"

"Actually no!" he took in a deep breath as she looked up at him.

"Bart, I'm busy at the moment."

He didn't avert his gaze as she expected him to. Instead, he closed the box and pushed it until it was right in front of her. She looked down at the engravings, which bore Bart's family symbol, a hawk with two war hammers crossed behind it.

"I'd just like to say thank you…for all the support you've been giving me. I mean…I don't know why you stick up for me half the time, but I want you to know why I can't do things right sometimes…I think too much- about you."

"Thinking is a good thing, Bart." BC stood up. "Just don't let it get in the way of what's going on outside of your head."

"But it _is_." Bart gritted his teeth, standing in her way. "It _is_, BC. And it's killing me. I have to know how you feel…you damn well know how I'm feeling about you. You're not stupid…please?"

"I accept this box with my thanks. See you at the festival. I want to see the comet." She simply brushed him aside, leaving the bridge a silent, cold void for Bart. He clenched his fists and swatted the lamp aside. It fell on the floor, breaking into several pieces.

_Damn it!_

(-)

Wing Zero drifted through space, heading for any place Meia saw fit. She had just finished learning how to use all the weapons, and had to say that some of them were kind of hard while others were pretty easy. The easiest was the Vulcan cannons, while the hardest was the beam sabers. Now, all she wanted to do was rest.

"So, is there anything else you can show me?" Meia asked, as leaned up against Alex' chest for support.

"Not really. You already got the basics which I would like to say was really fast. Other than that, there's not really anything else I can teach you, other than reentry, but there are no planets around here, and I don't feel like having someone come fetch us." He moaned as he began flying it home. Meia instantly grabbed hold of the controls and forcing the machine to fly towards the comet. "Meia, what the hell are you doing?!" He yelled as he got thrown back from force of her take off.

"I just thought I'd try some reentry on the comet." She replied with a grin. Alex yelled as the wings closed around the body of the white machine and allowed them to crash into the tail of the comet. The cockpit shook violently as they pushed through debris of ice, rock, and other particles that made up the universe. As soon as they were dead center, the wings opened up, bringing some relief to Alex and his machine. "Were dead center." Meia announced.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief over those words and for the radios going dead. "Great, did you have fun?" He moaned as he attempted to cross his arms, however, he ended up wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Alex," Alex looked down at his arms and quickly pulled them away from her, allowing her to grab something on the floor of the cockpit. Alex wasn't paying attention to what she grabbed until she opened it up and gasped. "What is this?" Alex looked down this time, and nearly paled at what she was looking at.

It was a drawing of Meia's head and torso, but lacking clothes, with only a small bed sheet cover to cover her modesty. "I didn't draw it!" He quickly yelped.

"Why were you drawing me?" She asked, trying to sound not impressed but failing miserably.

"I… uh… uh… I have no idea how that got in my cockpit." He lied. Meia shot him a strange look.

_Damn it. I was hoping she'd buy that._

"Alex, you're a bad liar." She stated, still trying to sound not impressed. Alex caught on, and smiled slightly, realizing that she wasn't mad at him.

"Sorry, it's just that this has always been the thing I do when something was on my mind." Meia shot him a confused expression. Alex sighed. "Okay look, whenever I would get stressed out about something, odd images appear in my head, and if I don't draw them or talk about them, they stay in there and never leave me alone. And since I don't normally talk to others about what goes on inside my head, like depression, anger, sadness, or any other kind of strange shit, I just draw it out in the form of an image. In this case, you were on my mind and I wanted it out."

"So you were going to turn me into one of your naked drawings?" She asked as she placed the piece of crumpled up paper on the ground. Alex had no reply to that. "Thank you."

"What?" 

"Thank you for doing something like that." Alex was now confused. V, Rei, and Luna never let him do this, and Meia was happy he was doing this? Okay he was now officially confused. "I mean, thank you for showing me this." She leaned back on his chest.

"You picked it up."

"Thanks anyways." She huffed.

(-)

"I think we got it now!" Parfait exclaimed as she closed the hatch to her device. Maya brightened up at this as Parfait turned the machine on. A few seconds later, and nothing happened. Both girls sighed at their failure again, and quickly went back to work with only ten minutes before the party would begin. "What are we doing wrong?" Parfait cried.

"I am sure that we will fix it in time for the party." Maya tried to make the young Tech feel better about her attempts, but nothing she said truly seemed to work.

"Parfait," Parfait ignored her Tech as she ripped open the hatch with a slow pace. "Parfait, look, it's working!" Parfait instantly was looking up at the ceiling to see white flakes falling from the sky. (A/N. God that sounded lame, but I think you get the picture.)

"It would appear so." Parfait turned to find Duerro smiling up at the white flakes that fell to the grassy earth of the ship's Bio Garden. "It truly is beautiful." Parfait just smiled and grabbed Duerro into a big hug, which ended rather quickly. Not because he was a man mind you, but because she felt something strange behind him. He slowly pulled the item out of hiding as he said, "Here, I made this for you," to reveal a painting of white flakes on a black background. "I didn't know what snow looked like, and since you said Christmas always required snow to make it Christmas, I decided to draw it in the form of blood flowing." Parfait didn't know what to say, but she hugged the painting close to her chest as she mentally thanked the Pexis for any help it had done, and God for any miracles she just pulled.

(-)

"Here, Merry Christmas." Barnette slipped a golden ring on Jura's finger, smiling as she watched Jura examine the item. Jura engulfed her in a hug when she finished scanning the item.

"Now, time for your gift." Barnette smiled as she waited for this. Jura leaned in and then kissed her on the cheek. Barnette smiled, but mentally moaned over her gift from Jura.

(-)

Thirty minutes of silence had passed over the duo piloting the Wing Zero. Meia was still sitting in Alex's lap, and enjoying the peace and quite that filled the cockpit. Alex was drawing again, only he was completing his drawing for some reason. Meia finally had enough of her curiosity over his drawing and turned her head to look at it.

"How long until you're finished?"

"Why do you care?" Alex moaned, not looking up from his drawing.

"Just curious." She said while blushing at the thought of her being drawn like that wallpaper he had. She didn't know why she was letting him draw her, let alone naked at least. But something told her that what he was doing was right. Alex sighed and went back to drawing. "So, is it true?"

Alex moaned loudly. "Is WHAT true?!"

"Is it true that today's your birthday?" Alex dropped the pencil and Meia smiled. "Looks my source of information on you was right."

"Okay, how in the seven hells did you…" Alex stopped as realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "I'm gonna kill her." He groaned.

"Why would you want to kill Magno? I thought you'd be the type to enjoy your birthday." 

"I do, but I just hate the day. It sucks because I have to wait to open my birthday gifts till Christmas morning, which was always a drag."

"Well then, Happy Birthday." She said, going back to looking at the white crystals that went sailing by them. "Alex, I wanna know something." Alex looked up from his sketch book to look her in the eye. "Why are you so different from everyone else?"

He didn't know what to say. He knew he was different from most people, but he still tried to act as normal as he could. He mostly blamed his odd personality on his father since he was the one that taught him all of his snappy comebacks along with how to avoid certain questions. The one Meia just asked however, he didn't have a way around it, nor could he answer it.

"I wish I knew the answer to that too, Meia." He whispered.

"You're smarter than most of the people on the ship. You're stronger than the men on the ship. You're faster and deadlier with a sword than Jura is, so how is that you don't know?"

"I guess it's because of my family." He answered. "Why are you so curious anyways?"

"I guess it's just that… well that you seem to have all the answers to all my questions." Alex chuckled at that. "You knew the truth behind what happened on Taraaku and over it. You knew about how to use all the equipment you gave us back then, and you even tried to teach me something I didn't want to learn. You even tried to protect me from Rabat before you fought him. You just make me so… so confused that it drives me insane."

"We can't be together." He stated sadly. Meia turned to face him, spinning her entire body until she was hugging him with a sad expression. "I love you Meia, but I also promised to protect the Nirvana without getting attached to anyone. I told myself that after Luna's death; I wouldn't get involved with another woman, because I didn't want them to die."

"But why, can't you see that I'm suffering because of you! I've never been this close to anyone, and it frightens me. I've always tried to understand others by keeping my distance. But you… you brought me out of my shell and I know I did the same for you." She squeezed him tightly, refusing to let go. "I just want to know why I feel this way around you." 

"It's because you're in love with me." He said sadly. Meia looked up at him with pleading eyes. "I can't protect you without a sword, Meia. I can't embrace you with one either. I really can't do anything for you, other then pick a side. If I choose to protect you, I can't embrace you, and if I choose to embrace you, I can't protect you. I truly can't play both sides, Meia. I've done that three times now, and each time I did it, those people ended up dead."

"But I can protect myself. You've never once tried to protect me before Rabat, so why would you need to do so now?!" Alex looked down into her blue eyes, playing back her words. He was right, and he knew it. Fear was the only thing holding him back from doing so. "I've never relied on anyone to help me after the incident, and then you came into my life, and now I need you to be there to make me smile, make me happy when I'm down. What is so wrong about doing this?!"

He was at a loss, he was wrecked and there was nothing more he could do, other than listen to her beg for an answer. He had to answer her question, but every time he would come up with one to stop them from getting that close, she came up with a reason that proved it would work.

"Please, just tell me why you don't want to be with me like that?!" Meia took a deep breath and opened her mouth to begin another series of questions, but Alex silenced her with his mouth pressed over her lips. Meia went wide eyed for a moment before relaxing to it. The two broke apart and she asked, "I guess you see that you can protect me and embrace me at the same time," as she smiled towards him.

"Meia, I don't think this will work though." He admitted.

"Alex, I don't care about what the others will say. I've never cared about what they have to say in the first place anyways." She leaned back in for another kiss.

(-)

Wing Zero came bursting out of the comets tail and opened its wings, flapping them slightly, almost as if the machine wanted to regain feeling to sleeping limbs. Gascgone was instantly there with Vandread Dita bringing up the rear. Once they had gone in, it was quite clear they would come out damaged, and Gascgone wasn't to surprised to see the white machine sporting dents, scratches, and a few large chipped pieces in its armor.

"Hey, are you alright?" Gascgone asked. No reply. She growled and turned on the heat signature to make sure Alex was alive. Once the image came back, she went wide eyed.

"_Miss. Gascgo, is Alex alright?" _Dita asked over the net.

"Yeah, I think so, but there are two heat signatures inside the cockpit." She answered. Hibiki and Dita looked at each with confused faces before Gascgone continued. "Here, take a look."

The two were about to, until Alex's voice rang out in over the net. _"Don't you dare look in here, you perverts!" _He yelled.

"_Go away now, shoo, shoo." _Meia made herself heard and known with that, before the white machine blasted off into space.

"What just happened here?" Hibiki asked after two minutes of silence.

"I have no idea." Gascgone replied slowly. Dita nodded in agreement, though only Hibiki could see it. "Come on, lets head back home." The two machines quickly began heading back, trying to figure out why Meia was with Alex in the first place.

(-)

"So, where were we?" Alex asked with a smile on his face, visibly for her to see. Meia smiled and unzipped her flight suit so that she was lying on his bare chest. "Aw yes, now I remember." He joked. Meia playfully punched him in the gut for his word before falling asleep to the sounds of his beating heart. Alex soon followed, mimicking the up and down movements of her chest with his own as she breathed.

(-)

The next day was clean up day. Most of the important crew members, those being on the bridge mind you, were the ones to get out of it. Since the Bio Garden was the spot for the party, as usual, that meant that they would have one hell of a hard time cleaning up the entire place since it was so big. Parfait was too busy trying to find a place to hang her gift from Duerro, but couldn't figure out which way it was to hang. She would have asked him, but he was currently dealing with a mini outbreak of a stomach virus that he figured was started by Jura and Barnette sharing some of their cake.

When Meia and Alex got back, everyone noticed that they were acting strange. It was little stuff that they noticed first. Meia was always seen around Alex, talking about her past or new battle strategies, but then it turned to stranger things, like her smiling and giggling. For Alex, well he was a lot nicer to the men, and was even making sense when it came to questions about sections of space they were heading towards, or just any question in general. So yeah, things were really strange, but they seemed to make Magno happy for some reason.


	11. I think its Gas

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 11 I think its gas

"So, what do you think?" Alex asked Meia. Meia smiled as he handed her a piece of paper. She had to admit, she was rather anxious to see herself naked, even if it was in the form of a drawing. As she took hold of the piece of paper, Alex wrapped his arms around her waist and smiled as she looked down at it, resting his chin on her shoulder.

It was the same one as before, but this one was slightly more revealing than before. Meia was standing up with her arms above her head, and a smile on her face. Her eye piece was gone, letting her hair move freely. She was completely naked this time, with only wisps of black and white ribbons wrapping around her body. Her eyes were shining brightly against the black background that shined with white stars, red gases, and a blue planet behind it. Wing Zero and Freedom were on both sides of her, each armed with their deadliest weapon. Wing Zero had its Twin Buster Rifle, and was battle worn. Freedom was armed with its twin beam sabers, and also sporting battle damage. Underneath the three were the words, "Protecting that which is important" in bright white.

"I like it." She said, taking the drawing away and putting it next to her bed. Alex just smiled and started to nuzzle her neck slightly as she sat down on her bed, letting him continue his show of affection. "You know, lots of people are getting curious about our relationship." She said between her small fits of giggles as he brushed ticklish spots on her neck.

"I thought you said you didn't care about what they thought?" He asked with a smile, once again not hidden by his mask. Meia smiled as he continued to nuzzle her neck. "Besides, I don't care about what they think either. So, what do you wanna do tonight?" He asked seductively. Meia just smiled as Alex continued his antics with her neck.

"Since when do you _not _care about what others think?" Meia asked as she leaned back on the bed, allowing him a better access to her neck. Meia moaned in bliss as Alex started rummaging in the back of her pants. "I don't think I have the energy for another go around like last night." She moaned. Alex stopped and sighed as he pulled his hands free of her butt, much to her displeasure. "Besides, I think we have to go to another strategy meeting in five minutes." She pouted.

"Can't you make those on weekdays?" Alex moaned as he stood up. Meia too moaned about it as she stood up and put the rest of her flight suit on. "I mean, it's the weekend for crying out loud!" He moaned. Meia too, moaned at this as she stepped out of her room with Alex behind her with his hands in his pockets.

"Look at it this way, once we're finished, we can have some fun." She told him. Alex once again groaned over this. He didn't want to say anything to her about her meetings, but they normally lasted about two to three hours, and then afterwards, she would pull him aside to talk about new ones, and that would take about four hours. "I promise this one won't last as long as the last." She read his mind, but he still seemed depressed over the meeting.

"Whatever."

(-)

"Meia has begun her meeting with the Dread fighters and two male pilots." Amarone announced. Magno nodded as she sat back in her chair. "So, we haven't been attacked in nearly two weeks." She mussed. For those on the bridge, meaning, BC, Bart, Magno, Amarone, and Ezra, this meant she was worried about what could be or was coming to destroy them.

"Yeah, it's kind of strange, but relaxing in some strange way." Ezra added. BC grunted as a way to show she was right and also worried about it. Magno simply gave a low "Hm" as she began thinking about the strange situation they were in. "I wonder what they're doing?"

"You mean our friends and family back home or the enemy?" Amarone asked. Ezra started thinking about that before she went back to rubbing her stomach with a smile on her face.

"I was talking about both of them, actually." She answered with a sad face as realization hit her. She whished she could see Rebecca at the moment, but knew she only had to wait about six to seven more months before she could.

"I supposed the others are okay. I can't see them actually worrying about us that badly, since Mejarru and Taraaku should have already received our warning message." BC told her. "But as for the enemy…"

"They're probably building up for a large scale assault." Magno stated, her eyes dimming over as she stared down at Alex's old ID card. She was happy that he and Meia had finally gotten together. But despite the situation of the crew taking to the news of them being together, she was truly glad to see some women, meaning Meia, getting use to being with a man. "Still, we need to start keeping our eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary." She told them with a sad smile.

"Let's just hope that we run into a small force then," BC replied sadly. "I don't think we can take on a fleet with the power we have now." She finished as she looked out at the Helm that held Bart.

_I don't think Bart could stand up to that many attacks anyways._

(-)

"Vandread Dita will then fly up beside Alex and use both of its cannons along with whatever machine Alex chooses to use, and fire into the circle of enemies that we have trapped." Meia said, motioning the board that displayed the new pattern. "Any questions?" She asked as she looked out at the fighters.

Dita raised her hand and asked, "If Alex uses the Wing Zero, do we have to be beside him or can we put some distance between us?" while looking over toward Alex.

"Even if you're near me when I fire the Buster Rifle, there's a chance that you'd take some damage." Alex told her. "You'd have to put some distance between us for that idea to work when I'm in Wing Zero. If I was in Freedom, then it wouldn't be a problem."

"How far would they have to be?" Meia asked.

Alex shook his head as he answered. "They could be within the blast range of your plan with the amount of armor that form has, but any closer and if we were to use the attack plan more then once, there's a chance that it would destroy them." The women all went wide eyed. They knew almost everything about both machines, but still had no way of understanding the sheer power of the Buster Rifle. In the last fight they had, Alex was forced to use the weapon beyond its limits which ended up with it losing its right arm and took sever damage to almost every system on it.

"What if you split the weapon like you did before?" Jura asked. "That was pretty impressive when you split it take out two large groups before they could react to the strange attack."

"No, that would make things worse." Alex told them as he walked up to the board. "If we did something like that, I'd have to do it alone. I have yet to use the full power of it like I did against the Taraaku station back then. I'm trying to keep the machine in top form, so splitting it and using the two Buster Rifles at the same time with full power would end badly." He told them.

"What if Hibiki took one and you took the other?" Barnette asked.

"You mean let Vandread Dita use one of them while I use the other?" Barnette nodded. "I don't know… that seems too risky. At full power, Wing Zero can only survive three shots, maybe four if the conditions were right, but I couldn't be sure. The armor can't withstand any more than that."

"But you said that our armor was tough," Hibiki stated. "If I combine with Crazy UFO girl, then we could withstand the power I think."

"No, I don't think you have the right type of armor to withstand the output, and power to keep yourself from being thrown back to far from the blast. I think my father tried to use it with the Freedom once, and that ended badly." Alex told him. "For the time being, I say we only use this plan once a day. No more, and no less. I want to make sure they can survive the attack before I agree to this plan though."

"Is there a test you'll have to do?" Hibiki asked.

"Yeah, I'll have to take a piece of your armor and test it against Wing Zero's to see if you have the right type to use it. If you have the right type to withstand at least one shot with one Buster Rifle, then I'll test Dita's Dread to see if when you combine you can use it. Then, and only then will I let you use it. Until then, I'll stick to using the Buster Rifle." He told the duo. Hibiki nodded in agreement while Dita saluted him with an odd grin on her face. Alex just chuckled at the sight of the two before taking a seat again.

"Alright, any other questions?" Meia asked.

Barnette raised her hand. "What about the Freedom?" Alex looked at her with a confused look. "You said the Full Burst mode could take out a lot of fighter so long as you can get a lock on them. What are the chances of you not locking on and shooting one of us?"

"Low, because it won't fire unless it's locked onto a target, unless I use the beam saber, then there's a possibility, but I doubt any of you would be that stupid to get in front of the blade." He replied.

"So we don't have anything to worry about?" Alex nodded. "Okay, that's good enough for me." Barnette said with a sigh of relief. She had already had a small brush with death because of a moment like that when Alex used the Full Burst mode to destroy a large number of fighters, but one of the shot missed locked and nearly hit her Dread. She was okay, but shaken by the attack that would have ended her life had Dita and Hibiki not combined to block the shot.

"Any other questions?" Meia looked around and mentally smiled. "Alright then, this meeting is finished. You can all go now." The pilots smiled and soon were gone, leaving only Alex, Meia, and Barnette behind. "Is there something you need to talk to me about, Barnette?"

"I was going to ask you how long you intend to keep playing hard ass around us while Alex was in the room." She replied with a smile. Meia just shook her head. "Listen, we all know he's made you smile, so why not smile around us more often. And please don't give us that battle smile you often have. That one just frightens the kids."

"What "kids" are you talking about?" Alex asked, walking over to Meia's side and leaning his head on her shoulder.

"I mean Paiway." Alex and Meia both paled. "She's gotten some funny photos of you two together, so start keeping an eye out for her, or I'll tell Miss. Gascgo to you've been smiling without her knowing it." Meia's pale got worse. She knew that Gascgone had a photo of everyone's smiles, but hers and Alex's. If Paiway was to get her hands on a photo of her smiling, then she would instantly be on Gascgone's Wall of Smiles.

"Right, we'll keep an eye out for her then." Alex moaned, as he and Meia both slipped out of the room with relative ease. Barnette just sighed as she ran up to catch her blond haired friend.

(-)

Once Meia and Alex were back in her room, Alex crashed on the bed and awaited the long talk he would have with here over new battle plans and other strange strategies. Seriously, they hardly got a chance to play Chess now, and Alex often wondered why she couldn't beat him if she could come up with these strange plans that would work through every little twist and turn that Alex could come up with on why it wouldn't work or why the other machine would be better. It just drove him insane as to how the two couldn't be connected.

"I'm not going to talk about that today." That sounded like a trick, or something that had a catch to it anyways. "So long as we play another round of Chess and you teach me a new trick." Yep, there was a catch.

"And if I refuse?" Boy that sounded dumb on his part.

"I won't let you sleep with me tonight like I had planed." She said triumphantly.

Damn it. For a smart guy, he sure was dumb a lot. Meia was smiling as she watched him ponder over that for a moment. This technically would be the first night he had literally slept with her. True they slept together in Wing Zero on Christmas Eve, but that was because they didn't want to be disturbed. This would be because she just wanted to cuddle or some shit. His hormones told him to do it, while the rest of his body just said, "Push your luck" which is what he gave into.

"I've taught you everything I know." Meia glared at him. Damn it, way wrong answer! His personal feelings instantly won the fight. "Alright damn it, but this better be worth it because I don't have any more tricks to show you." He growled as they walked out of her room and toward the Recreation Room.

Meia smiled and clung to his arm like a crazed school girl, much to his annoyance for once. Meia had already picked up on the things he hated, the things he liked, and the things that would drive him insane if he didn't figure it out within five minutes. This was something he hated. It just remind him of home and all the crazed school moms that wanted their daughter to date him, or the school girls that just wanted to have bragging rights for being with him or getting him to blush. However, the girls could never get him to blush, he could however, get them to blush madly before passing out after they thought he was going to actually kiss them. This of course was what got him home schooled in the first place, which was something Ezra quickly considered doing to her child.

(-)

"So, how'd it go?" Gascgone asked. Hibiki grunted. The two had become fast friends so to speak, after Hibiki got confused about his feelings for Dita, and now he was often playing cards with her when he needed to let off some steam or just needed someone to talk to that he knew wouldn't go tell everyone. "You're down about something. What is it?" She took a card as she placed one on the small stack in front of the stack of cards.

"It's nothing." He growled. "Call!" he roared. Gascgone rolled her eyes as she placed her hand on the table, showing a Royal Flush with hearts. Hibiki gritted his teeth as he threw his pair of Jacks on the table. "I can't think straight." He blamed it on his head now. Yeah, blame the thing you use to think.

"If it's nothing, then you would have had a better hand and not gone off the deep end like that without being prepared." She told him calmly as she began shuffling the deck. "Let's talk about it." She suggested as she handed out the cards.

"It's Demon, he doesn't think I'm strong enough to handle the Buster Rifle." He said. Gascgone nodded at this, fully understanding where he was coming from with this. "I mean, I know I'm strong enough, so why won't he let me use it like Barnette suggested?"

"I think it had something to do with the armor of your machine." She answered as she picked up two cards and placed two down on the table. "I think you're strong enough, but it's your machine's strength, not yours." She told him. Hibiki sighed and looked down at his hands.

"You think I'm strong, don't you?" He asked. Gascgone just sighed. "I wonder if _he _thinks I'm strong." He mussed to himself.

"I'm sure that Alex thinks you're strong." She laid her cards down as she gave him a serious look. "But I wonder, just what do you _think _of Alex?" Her question hit home base. Hibiki looked down at the ground with sad eyes. "You feel bad about what you've said to him, don't you?" Hibiki nodded slightly. "I'm sure he'll forgive you."

"Some how, I really doubt that." Hibiki said as he stood up to leave. "But still, I don't know if I could forgive him for what he did to us. Some things, just can't be forgiven." He walked out of the room with a gloomy look in his eye.

(-)

"That's game." Alex said with a grin. Meia scrunched up her nose as she looked at her situation. She wasn't too happy with it to say the least. She knew she had been beaten, but she just wanted to remain stubborn to see if he would show her a new trick or something.

"I still think there's a way out." Meia said as she bit her thumb. Alex just leaned back and sighed.

_Man, why can't she see that this is a game of wits, not brawns? I've taught her everything I know and she still has yet to beat me. Maybe she just needs a push in the right direction. _Alex stopped and thought about that for a moment. _Nah, she'll figure it out on her own. _

"Alex, there has to be something you haven't shown me." She snapped him back to reality. "Show me something new." She demanded. Alex rolled his eyes and leaned over the board to knock her King over. "I'm certain that you haven't shown me everything. Now show me something new, or I won't let you sleep with me." She ordered. Alex sighed and rubbed his head.

"Meia, I've taught you all the tricks in the book. You should be happy to beat Maya, and in getting as close to beating me as you did in the last match, but this is a game that you yourself have to find the answers to. I can't teach you your own strategy that just wouldn't make any sense." He reached over to start putting the pieces back in their rightful spots when the alarms began blaring loudly. "Damn it, we've got incoming!"

Both pilots jumped up and ran out the door to the hanger.

(-)

The crew on the bridge stood in fear at the sight before them. They just couldn't believe how big it was. The strange ship must have been three or maybe even five times bigger then the Nirvana, and the fighters that were pouring out were greater then what they had ever seen. Not even the Taraaku and Mejarru militaries had an army this big. And to make matters worse, they had somehow managed to copy the Vandreads.

"Alex V. Switchfoot, Freedom, let's do it!" Alex's voice echoed throughout the ship as the white machine with blue wings leapt from the ship to link up with the Dreads and Vandread Dita. Dita was yelling about fakes while Meia was ordering formations and team divisions at the moment.

"Alex; take two Dread teams, and protect the Nirvana. Got that?" Meia ordered. No reply came. "Alex?" Still no reply. "Alex, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry about that, I was just looking down at the Gas Giant." Alex told them.

"Don't scare us like that, you almost got us worried." Jura snapped. Alex sighed as he floated over to the two Dread teams that would be accompanying him to protect the ship. Barnette was one of the fighters, so he knew he had his work cut out for him.

"Alright, that thing is still a ways away, so we might be able to avoid it, right?" Hibiki asked.

"No." Hibiki hung his head at Alex's word. "If we got any closer to the Gas Giant to our left, we'd be screwed in more ways than one."

"Well you got any plans, because I doubt we can take on something like that without one major miracle." Hibiki moaned.

"Yeah, don't get shot." Hibiki sighed again at Alex's chosen words. He really knew how to inspire someone, didn't he?

The enemies instantly began firing as they came into range of Dread units and Freedom unit that sat beside Vandread Dita. Alex flew back with his two teams, alongside Barnette as she began circling the Nirvana with her team. They mostly got Cube types and a few Egg Carriers, but nothing truly special or that got their true attention. It was a simple pattern. Alex took care of all missiles and any Cube types that got past the Dread fighters that were making an assault on the Flag Ship. What got past him, had to deal with the first team, consisting of mostly Heavy Defense fighters, and what got through them had to deal with the second team that Alex told Barnette to lead. Barnette was more than happy to take over as Second in command, and was actually doing a good job. Her job was to just kill anything that got past Alex and his team, which was very little. In fact, they were a mini contest to see who could get the most kills, Alex was winning, but Barnette still believed he would eventually get overrun and then fall back.

For the teams taking on the Flag Ship, they were having a harder time. They were greatly outnumbered and outgunned by them, and to make matters worse, the enemy had even copied the Vandreads, making things a lot harder. Hibiki and Dita were dealing with their clone while trying to help out any Dread units that needed help in their area. Meia was barking out orders left and right while she fought her clone, but was constantly breaking up the formation since her clone seemed to know ever flight plan she ever made and where she was supposed to fly. Jura was by far having the hardest. She was forced to fly backwards and fire at her clone since she could never get behind it. With the help of the Vandread clones, things were looking rather grim for the crew of the Nirvana.

"Jura, three more coming to your left!" Meia yelled as she grimaced from another near hit to her Dread. "Dita, you two have eight Cube types coming up from behind!" She grunted as shot nicked her left wing. "Damn it, switch to formation Alpha-Lance!" She barked as she swiveled through enemy fire.

"Damn it, why won't you go down?!" Jura yelled as she grimaced from another hit. Her clone just fired another salvo of lasers that hit a few Cubes that decided to test their luck against Jura. "Ha, blasted your own damn friends!" Jura shouted. The clone's response to this, it opened its mouth like piece, showing off its razor like teeth as it attempted to bite her unit in half. Two tubes of energy being shot in front of the beast forced it back and to flee the scene before it got shot down. "Thank Dita." Jura said as she flew beside them.

"This is hopeless." Hibiki stated. "We need to find a weak spot on that damn Flag Ship soon, or we're not going to be able to make it home to warn them about anything!  
He yelled, smashing two Cubes with one of Vandread Dita's cannons.

"Just keep firing!" Meia stated. "If we can shoot down the Carriers, then we might have a chance." She blasted two more Cubes.

"Alex, how are things on your end?" Jura asked.

"_Pretty lame if you ask me." _Alex replied. _"All we've been dealing with are those stupid Cubes and a few Carriers that try their luck against us, but other than that, we're basically not doing anything but twiddling our thumbs over here." _

"Alright then; Barnette, do you think you can command two teams without Alex to help you defend the ship?" Meia asked.

"_Are you kidding, we've been doing noting but target practice over here. Of course you can take him!" _Barnette told her.

"Alright then; Alex, get over here and help us out!" She yelled.

"_Rodger that." _Alex replied as he began heading towards the battle field. Barnette smiled as more enemies become open to her since Alex's departure and was now having a field day shooting down anything that dared to try and strike the Nirvana.

(-)

"Demon, you think you can shorten their numbers any?" Hibiki asked as he maneuvered the Dita combination to another spot to avoid enemy Cube fire so they could fire into another hoard of Cubes and purple spiked balls. (Same ones they fought when Meia combined with Hibiki.) The duo had already ditched their fake, and was now just trying to stay away from it while killing anything that they deemed not human or a "Good Alien" by Dita's terms.

Alex just smirked inside his cockpit as Freedom's cannons flipped out. Inside his cockpit, a targeting screen appeared and started targeting everything that wasn't considered friendly before opening up, tearing everything apart. The sky was instantly lit up with large explosions and broken mech parts that flew through the smoke and became visible to the naked eye before the smoke dissipated.

"That answer your question?" Alex joked. Hibiki just growled as he forced the combination to smack a nearby Cube that sent it sailing down into a wave of missiles. "I'll take that as a "Yes"." Alex said with a grin as Freedom blasted off into the nearest hoard of Cubes.

"Alex, take Dread team eight, and try to get as close as you can to the Flag Ship and take it down!" Meia ordered.

"Rodger that." He replied as team eight appeared by his side to fly into the belly of the beast. Alex, and his small team of five Dreads, began tearing through the enemy with everything they had. Alex was using his beam saber to slice through the enemy with relative ease. What he missed with the beam saber, the Dread fighters blasted with precision and deadly accuracy.

(-)

"Registering all hostile vessels inside the kill zone; eighteen Carrier ships and fifteen Spiked Types," Maya calmly stated. "Barnette, it would be wise to engage the Carriers before dealing with the Spiked Types."

"_Got anymore good news for me?" _Barnette asked, sounding bored as ever. Barnette was actually doing nothing at this point. Anything that got to her team was nothing more then pure garbage when it crossed into her firing domain. The team that Alex had left up front was doing most of the work, but they were still letting a few through, much to the enjoyment of Barnette, who was still keeping count on her kills.

"Yes, there is a larger force heading this way, so be prepared." She replied. With a quick "Rodger" from Barnette, Maya turned to Magno and said, "We should start thinking about trying to move around the planet to avoid combat. Though you have excellent fighters, I doubt they can stand up to a fleet that big," while floating around the bridge to look at everyone's vitals.

"Good idea, but the only problem is the planet is a Gas Giant, and its gravity field is larger then expected." Amarone countered. "Even if we could project its range, there'd be only a small guaranty that we could make it around the ship and escape it."

"True, but I image that its gravity field can't be this far out. That wouldn't make much sense, since…" Maya stopped as Bart began screaming and the ship started to swivel towards the planet. "Bart, are you okay?"

"The planet is pulling us in!" He yelled.

"That can't be! We have to be outside it's range… unless…" all eyes fell on the floating ball. "Unless it's a baby star…"

"Baby star, what does that mean?" Belvedere asked.

"It means that that planet, that Gas Giant is in the makings to become a star. That's why I couldn't get a read on its gravity range, it was still slowly increasing, and we ran right into it." Maya told them.

"Is there anyway to get away from it!" Bart yelled as he began screaming in pain. The enemy Cubes were now pounding the ship with everything they had. Some even went so far as to do kamikaze runs in hopes of destroy key areas on the ship.

"_Oh man, they're coming at us from all over the place now!" _Barnette yelled.

"Barnette, you need to get to a safe area." Maya ordered. "This ship is heading for the Gas Giant. If you're anywhere near us when we go in, if we don't get out of course, then you'll die from the compression of your unit."

"If we don't get out, what will happen?" Ezra asked. She almost regretted her words the minute she said them, and Maya was the one to truly put fear in them.

"We'll be crushed to death." She whispered.

"Bart, get us out of here, NOW!" Mango yelled. The ship instantly began fighting the force of the planets' gravity, but to no avail. The more he pulled, pushed, and swiveled to get free, the more pain he was forced to endure. He felt like his insides were about to be pulled out, and that was something he didn't like feeling at the moment. No one could truly blame him though since being pulled apart would be a pretty painful death.

"_The Nirvana is starting to bend in different areas!" _Barnette yelled. _"Maya, if you were to go with the planets' gravity, couldn't you slingshot your way around the planet?"_

"Yes, but the chances of us succeeding stand at only…"

"Bart, you heard the lady, start flying with the gravity!" Magno yelled, interrupting the AI. "I'd rather not know our chances, thank you." She said. Maya floated up and down as if to nod her head while watching the battle outside.

(-)

"The Nirvana is heading towards the Gas Giant?" Alex asked.

"_Yes, and you need to get back before they enter or you won't be able to get in." _Maya replied. Alex growled as he forced the Freedom into a barrel roll while shooting two Cubes down.

"But if I get in, how will I get back out?!" He asked.

"_Would you rather be crushed to death or die in an explosion?" _The AI replied.

"I think I'd rather die in an explosion!" He snapped. Alex switched off his radio to the AI as he began searching for Channel Two on his radio again. "Meia, we need to head back to the ship. Maya's got some kind of plan to get us all out of here, but…" Alex stopped as the Vandread Meia clone appeared in front of him and tried to slice him in half. Alex began a long line of curses as he dodged the attack and started firing at it with his rifle and cannons. The clone bobbed and weaved through the blasts of energy as it did a U turn to do another strike. Alex smirked and pulled out a beam saber, just in time to slice the left wing off. The clone exploded as it smacked into a Cube. Alex began cheering over the defeat before another one appeared, and this time appearing with its two brothers.

"Oh shit." He moaned as the three clones began charging him. Alex bobbed and weaved through the enemy fire while returning with his own. The Meia clone left abruptly as the real Meia appeared in the distance, shooting down everything on her screen. "Meia, your clone's coming!" Alex yelled.

"I see it!" She yelled back, doing a barrel roll at the last minute to dodge the frontal attack, but found herself staring into the cannons of Vandread Dita's clone. The barrels charged up, and the mech was instantly gone. Meia smiled as her savior, Alex, appeared beside her. "Thanks for the save." She said.

"No problem, just keep your eyes peeled, and your fingers on the trigger." He replied, shooting two more cubes down. Meia followed his lead by shooting five Cubes before she broke off to head towards the Nirvana.

"Alex, we need to head back to the Nirvana." Barnette told him.

"Even if you make it around the planet, these bastards will still be on us until we can get away from them." Alex grunted as another Cube exploded beside his hatch. "I'll hang back until you've escaped the gravity field. Once you've got free of it, I'll follow you."

"Alex, I'm not leaving you behind!" Meia shouted.

"Meia, stay with the ship, and… MEIA, WATCH OUT!" Alex yelled with fear evident in his voice. Alex watched with fear in his eyes as Meia's Dread took a direct hit to her left wing from her clone, spinning her into uncontrolled barrel roll that sent her sailing towards a waiting Vandread Dita clone with its cannons ready. Alex quickly fired his rifle at the clone, sending a yellow beam of energy in front of the clone's face, instantly making it back off. "Meia, Meia, are you alright?! Meia!" Alex cried.

"Don't worry, Alex!" Gascgone said. "I'll get her, you just worry about finding a good place to hide until we've escaped! The Nirvana couldn't get away from the gravity like we thought!" She yelled as her carrier snatched up Meia's Dread. "Just get out of here until we're ready to try again!"

"Alex, please be safe." Those were the last words Alex heard before a Pexis barrier engulfed the Delivery ship as they began entering the Gas Giant.

"I promise to, Meia." Alex whispered as he began flying around to the other side of the planet, towards a debris field.

(-)

"Alex has left the battlefield." Amarone announced.

"Don't die on us, Alex. Your mother would purge me if I let you die." Maya whispered.


	12. Separate Paths

I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 12 Separate Paths

"Alex has left the battlefield." Amarone announced.

"At least we have someone on the outside I guess." BC mussed. The bridge bunnies all nodded as she looked over at Belvedere. "Statues report!"

"The enemy Flag Ship has stopped above the planet and is currently circling around the gravity field. The pressure from the planet is causing a large pinch to the power supply from the Pexis, and if I'm reading what Parfait just sent me right, we only have about fifty minutes before the Pexis Barrier gives and we get crushed by the planets' gravity." Belvedere reported.

"Anything else we need to know about?" Magno asked, sounded rather worried at the moment.

"No, ma'am." Celtic replied, sounding really depressed.

"Alright then, we need to start coming up with a plan of some kind." Magno stated as she turned to Maya. "Start using that brain of yours with Parfait to help get us out of here." She told her. Maya bobbed up and down before disappearing from sight.

(-)

The hanger was buzzing with action, but no one really wanted to talk at the moment. Things were just depressing at the moment. They had been beaten, but what was worse was that they had no place to run to. They were stuck in the center of a Gas Giant, with no way out, no were to run to if they could get out, and they were now forced to wait for their deaths. Things really did look bad at the moment.

"Don't worry… everything… will be… fine." Meia gasped as she was brought down to the hanger floor, via a stretcher.

Jura just buried her head in her knees as she began crying and saying, "I'm tired of fighting battles we can't even win!" as she continued to sink into depression. Dita turned away from the scene before her. She just couldn't bring herself to look into the eyes of her friend at the moment.

(-)

The Infirmary was buzzing with activity. Duerro was currently working on Barnette's arm that had a large gash on it. He had already finished bandaging it, but he still wanted to make sure that she would be able to use it in the next battle. Meia was beside her with her large gash on her shoulder still visible.

"The injure you sustained is not fatale, but may cause some problems with your piloting performance." Duerro stated. Barnette just nodded as she stood up, wincing in pain as she grabbed her arm on impulse.

"Thanks." She muttered.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Dita came rushing into the room with worry evident on her face. Duerro looked over at Dita with worry in his single eye. Duerro knew from past experiences with Dita, just how straight forward she was when it came to something she viewed as a major problem, but right now, he wasn't about to take any chances. "Everyone is saying that this is the end and that we never should have thought about heading back home!" Yeah, he should have lowered his expectations. "I need some medicine to make every cheerful again."

"I understand what you mean, but medicine is not capable of lifting everyone's spirits at the moment." Duerro replied. He opened his mouth to speak again, but the little nurse cut him off.

"That's right, we should have never considered returning when they won't care about us!" Paiway screamed.

"Paiway…" Dita whispered as the little nurse continued. 

"Everyone saying that this is the end because we have nowhere else to go, nowhere else to hide, and you know what, they're right! Why must we fight for people who don't care, won't believe us, and would kill us on the spot? No one wants to fight anymore, and to make this worse, Alex left us to die here!"

"Paiway…" Dita cried before running out of the room.

"You're wrong Paiway…" Meia whispered. _Alex won't leave us high and dry like this. I know he won't. He doesn't want to fail me like he did the others._

(-)

"Okay, so we're good up to that point, right?" Hibiki asked Pyoro. Ever since Hibiki had returned to the ship, he had been in the hanger working with Pyoro on a plan of some kind in order to get them out alive. Pyoro was acting like Alex in more ways than one.

"Nope, still won't work."

Hibiki gritted his teeth as he slapped his head with an open palm. He was getting tired of hearing that, but the little robot kept saying it. Hibiki knew the robot was right, but he wanted to see if he could still do it by himself. He just wanted to hear him say he could do it be himself, rather then listen to the little robot say that he needed teammates to pull it off.

"Okay, but I still don't care." Hibiki moaned. He sat there staring at the simulation on the little robots' screen. He then began punching in a few other keys before sitting up with a smile. "What about that?"

"Nope, still won't work." Hibiki began a long line of curses while Pyoro just sighed and said "Humans" while rolling his eyes.

"What if I tried something like this?" He repeated. Once more, Pyoro shot down the idea, and Hibiki began cursing again.

"So, this is where you are." BC walked up to Hibiki with a grin. "How are things going?" She sounded worried.

"Not good, but we've almost got something." Hibiki admitted.

BC smiled as she looked at the golden vanguard. _It takes one voice to move the masses. I wonder how much longer you can fight._

"_Hey everybody, can you hear me?"_ BC and Hibiki both looked up at the speakers in the hanger. _"I know things look bad, and we might lose, but we can't let that get us down right now. We have to stand and fight. If we don't, then how can our people survive the attack? That's why we have to stand and fight, no matter the outcome!"_

Hibiki smiled as he looked down at the little navy bot. "You…idiot." He whispered.

(-)

"So that's where he's been hiding out." Magno said, sounding somewhat surprised. "Can this plan of his work?"

"Chance of success is seventy percent." Maya stated. "His plan is logical and has the necessary means to work, but the main problem is the time in taking to ignite the planets' core. If they take too long, then they could get shot down, but if it happens too quickly, then we might not have enough time to escape the planets' ignition."

"True, but it's a plan, and it's the only one we have at the moment. Let's give it a try!" Magno said. BC nodded, and called the team that was carrying out the mission to tell them to get ready to go.

(-)

Dita couldn't open her door. She was too afraid to open the door. She just couldn't get the strength to touch the keypad that would open her door, because she didn't want to be ridiculed for her speech earlier. Her fingers finally touched the keypad, and the door hissed open to reveal hundreds of people running around with boxes, bandages, and other stuff in their arms. Dita just blinked in confusion before smiling as she realized her words had refueled their spirits.

(-)

"Alright, so are we set?" Barnette asked.

"Yeah, just stick to your part of the plan, and…" Hibiki stopped as the door hissed open. Dita stood there, not sure on what to do as she stared at Hibiki's blank expression. He smiled, and she smiled. "Get over here; you're part of the plan too."

(-)

The Nirvana dropped its shield to let out five units. The three special Dreads were up front, followed closely by Barnette's Dread, and bringing up the rear was Hibiki's Vanguard. Each unit had their Pexis shield on while they flew through the thick fog that made up the planet.

"Remember, stick to the plan and we should be okay." Hibiki reminded.

"Rodger that." Barnette and Meia replied.

"Alright, let's combine now." Hibiki yelled. A bright light engulfed Jura and Hibiki's units before Vandread Jura was once again born. The now four units quickly exited the planets' gassy soup and were soon outside, and in firing range of the enemy.

(-)

"The team is in position." Amarone announced.

Magno nodded and then said, "Begin the operation!" while her hood came down to cover one eye.

(-)

Vandread Jura released its energy disks to cover the planet in a green barrier. Once their barrier was back up, and the planet was covered in the green barrier, the three Dread units instantly began firing their main weapon into the green barrier and through their own to ignite the planets' core.

Everything was going as planned. The idea was to heat the planets' gassy core to the point that it would turn into a sun. Since they didn't feel like waiting for a thousand years for the process to be natural, they decided to speed up the process. The main idea behind the formation was to split up most of the fighter's fire to the units on an individual level, but the problem was that the enemy went for the weakest fighter, Dita. Dita was being pounded by the fighters from every angle. Her Dread quickly began to veer off course, causing the core of the planet to slowly cool off.

"Dita, you need to adjust your aim by three degrees to the left!" Meia yelled. No luck. Her Dread only got worse from the pounding of the fighters. "DITA!"

Meia and Dita's clone appeared beside her unit, ready to slice and blast her unit to pieces. Dita saw them powering up their weapons, or in the Meia clones' case, began speeding up to ram through her. Dita closed her eyes and awaited her fate. Two large explosions echoed into her ears. Her eyes opened to find the Freedom hovering beside her.

"Alex…"

(-)

The Freedom had powered down and was hiding in a nearby debris field that consisted of space rocks and broken ships. Alex had decided to power it down after he escaped the Harvester Flag ship to make sure they couldn't detect him. So far, they had yet to find him, so that meant that he was doing pretty good, so far anyways.

"_So, you still haven't learned anything, have you?" _A mocking voice sounded. Alex glared at the white space around him. He had been here for the past two minutes, and was slowly beginning to think that he was dead and just too dumb to understand that he was. With that voice, he now truly thought he was. But despite how old it was, he still remembered hearing that voice.

"What do you want, father?" Alex spat.

"_No respect, as usual I guess." _The voice spat. Alex rolled his eyes at the voice.

"What do you want, Dad?"

"_It's not what I want, it's what you want. I wouldn't have appeared had you not summoned me."_

"I never once relied on you, so why would I ask for you to come back now?" Alex could hear his father chuckling. "Where are we anyway? Last time I saw this place I was near death. What gives you old bastard?"

"_You really don't get it, do you?"_

"Get what? Because of you, I was forced to take over in your stead! Do you know what you did to mom with your death?" Alex yelled. "I know you failed to protect mom, but your stupidity caused her the most pain! Just because you failed to protect her, doesn't mean you needed to kill yourself!"

"_You blame me for failing, don't you?" _Alex glared at the voice. _"I'm sorry for the pain I caused you and your mother, but I failed, and I couldn't continue living with my life as a failure."_

"You're so full of shit!" Alex yelled back. "Mom never cared about your failure to protect her! All she ever cared about was that you tried, and that was more important to her!"

"_So you hate me for that, don't you?" _Alex nodded. _"You failed and yet you were strong enough to push past it. I wonder if I was wrong, or right." _

"I failed, and yes I'm ashamed of it, but I pushed through my failure to become who I am today. I didn't cower in the corner like you did when I lost my love or failed to protect them like you did."

"_You're words are strong, and your heart may be true, but you failed to remain in contact with humans. That was your problem; you pushed people away and became a killer. For all your words and my teachings, you still chose to take the path of that lead you to destruction, pain, and the killing of others."_

"True, but at least I chose to stay and live in a world that I wanted to believe in!" Alex retorted. "I may be a killer, murderer, and destroyer, but at least I chose to live rather than die and hide in a corner like a kid that had been beaten by his parents! Weren't you the one that told me to always be thankful to be alive, even if I was near death?"

"_True, those were my words, but did you truly ever believe them, or were you just pretending to listen to what I said? For all the things I taught you, you never truly learned how to pilot this machine, did you?" _Alex looked as the Freedom appeared within the void they were in. _"I taught you how to pilot, and you still never learned anything other then how to pull the trigger. You rely on speed and your brains to get you through everything. That kid, Hibiki, had more guts than you, and I think you know it. That girl, Meia, the woman you have become fond of, has more brains than you. Blood, has more emotions than you. For all the things you had, you still never learned anything. You always wanted to learn things the hard way, and now… you can learn them that way…" _the voice vanished and Alex was once again staring out at the dark void of space.

"For all the things you taught me, you never once listened to your own words." Alex snorted. The power began to slowly come back on. Alex blinked in surprise as the machine tried to turn itself on. "Freedom?" he whispered. Alex looked down at the control of his machine with worry evident in his eyes. "Sure, one more time… Father." The Freedom instantly turned on and began heading back into the battlefield.

(-)

"Dita, you need to adjust your aim by three degrees to the left." Alex said calmly. Dita nodded and was soon back in sync with the other two beams, much to everyone's relief.

"Alex, please be careful." Dita begged. Alex gave no reply. He couldn't answer her. Not because he was engaged in a fight or that his radios might be down, but because he didn't want to make a promise that he knew he probably couldn't keep.

Dita watched as he blasted off into the fray with his rifle in hand, shooting anything that tried to get near her. Something overcame her right then. She didn't know what it was, or what it meant, but it was something strange that she herself had never felt before. Dita just watched with sad eyes as Alex fought to protect her, the Nirvana, and his love, Meia.

_You once said to me, that everything has a purpose in life. You told me that we all made mistakes to learn on how to not do them again. You told me that the right path is often the hardest one to accept, but for all your words, you never once listened to them! _Alex thought. The Freedom took a direct hit to his left shoulder pad, tearing it apart. Alex destroyed the Cube that managed the lucky shot. _Even after what you preached to me, you still chose to keep on living until that day. You were the one to fall into despair and succumb to the suffering of your own heart. _Another blast hit him, this time, destroying the left leg at the knee. _You said you would watch me grow, and help me raise a family! _Another Cube got a lucky shot in, this time hitting knocking the shield away. Alex blasted the Cubes away by activating his Full Burst mode. _You were once a man I looked up to, and I believed in you. I was foolish or blind, but either way, I always believed in you. I always expected you to go down fighting for what you believed in. _

(-)

"The planets' core has begun to compress!" Belvedere announced.

(-)

"Alright… energy… reverse!" Parfait yelled as she, along with five other Techs that were stationed in front of five large switches, pulled them down. Parfait instantly turned around to watch as the glowing blue ball of crystals, began to slow down on its flickering. "The Pexis is returning to normal." She said proudly.

"It would appear so." Maya said, floating around the cheerful Techs.

(-)

"The planets' core is beginning to ignite!" Celtic stated.

"Bart, turn this ship around! We need to get the hell out of here!" Magno yelled. Bart was more than happy to comply as a small white sphere began to form just behind him.

(-)

"Alright, now for the second part of the plan!" Hibiki yelled as he disembarked from Vandread Jura. A bright flash of light engulfed the machine before Hibiki's vanguard, and Jura's Dread became visible. The golden machine instantly began plummeting towards the planet, while Jura quickly made her escape.

"You are out of position!" Meia yelled as her Dread streaked across the planets' surface.

"Yeah, because you took so damn long!" Hibiki yelled back. Meia just grinned as her Dread instantly merged with his machine. The combination seemed to teleport out of the planets' atmosphere in time to snag Dita with its claws.

"Alright, time for phase three!" Meia yelled as the combination split. She quickly got out of the way to watch as Vandread Dita was born, arming themselves with their deadly twin cannons in the form of a spear.

The enemy Flag ship saw this, and quickly began accumulating energy for its main cannon. If it was going down, then it was sure as hell going to take down one of the big pests that had been a thorn in their sides. Vandread Dita, stood tall and strong as a solar flare came racing towards them from behind. The enemy Flag ship fired its main weapon just as the combination threw their weapon with the flare in hot pursuit. The two clashes of energy met, and struggled against one another, but that was quickly put to rest as the flare gave the weapon the extra push it needed to sail through the beam of death and right through the enemy flag ship.

"We did it." Hibiki whispered. A sudden explosion to his left caught his eye, but his attention was soon, back to something truly odd.

(-)

The Freedom was out of the way as Vandread Meia appeared, carrying Dita for a ride to get away from the birthing star. Alex was amazed to see such a sight, but his eyes still seemed glued to the enemy in front of him. Nothing but the three clones now remained of the Fleet, other than the Flag ship of course, and Alex was tired. The Freedom had been pushed to its limits, and was now on the verge of giving up. Alex knew he only had to hold them off until the Flag ship was destroyed to win. So, with that it mind, Alex switched up his tactic. Rather than fight them, he was now more interested in outrunning them.

_Not much longer now, Freedom. They've almost done it. _Alex cried in his head. The Vandread Meia clone attacked first. Alex flew above it, then flipped in mid air to blast down on the machine. The clone dodged them, but just barely. Alex cursed as the Jura clone appeared, hoping to bite him in half. This time, he spun around with his beam saber to cut off its left jaw or mouth piece. The Dita clone attacked next, using its cannons to force him to barrel roll away from the fire. The Meia clone had already spun around was now about to try to slicing him in half. Alex forced his machine into a 180 to blast the right wing off the machine. Alex smirked to himself, but his smirk quickly turned to one of pain as the clone exploded behind him.

Alex looked down at his damage radar to see what had been hit. _Damn it all, both wings are gone! _He cursed as another blast struck him. Alex turned around in time to slice the Jura clone in half before it could clamp down on him. With a mighty explosion to his right, Alex smiled, knowing the enemy had been beaten.

"We did it." He whispered. "I proved you wrong, father." Alex stated with a grin. His grin turned to one of shook as he watched form a distance, as the large Flag ship reappeared from the dust cloud. "What the hell is going…" Alex turned back to find the Dita clone at point blank range with its cannons in firing position. The cannons charged up, and fired.

Alex saw a lot of things in that moment. He saw his happy moments with Rei, V., and Luna. He saw his bad times with them. He saw his happy times with Meia and the Nirvana crew. He even saw two smiling faces. One he knew was Meia, and the other, was something that didn't make any sense to him.

_Could this have been the life I would have had had I not died? _Alex thought.

"_Congratulations Honey, it's a girl, and you're a father." _Meia whispered.

The blast connected with the torso of the Freedom, splitting it in two. Alex felt pain rush through his body. He watched as the image before him began to fad away. The last thing he got to hear before his machine exploded, was Meia saying, "I'll miss you" before the explosion engulfed him completely.

(-)

"Damn it all!" Hibiki cursed as the large Flag ship reappeared out of the dust cloud. "Don't they know when to give up?!" He yelled. Dita had no answer to this.

(-)

"A solar flare has emerged from within the new star!" Celtic stated.

"Vandread Dita, get out of there!" BC yelled.

The flare smacked into them before they could reply. The crew watched with sad eyes as the signal for Vandread Dita vanished. They didn't know what to say or do; they just sat there, stunned that they had died.

"Hibiki, none of this will have any meaning if you die." Bart whispered in the navigation chamber.

"_I'm not dead yet." _That voice brought back all the hope, along with their signal again as they came barreling out of the flames at a fast pace, and with a flare tailing them from behind. Everyone held their breath as the duo thrust their fist forward towards the ship. The flare was instantly twirling around them as they prepared to either die fighting, or punch a solid hole through the large beast. The Flag ship began sealing up the hole from where it split in two, with a green armor. Dita and Hibiki instantly gripped their hands a little tighter as they punched into the large ship. A white smoking flare shot through the machine, and a large explosion following soon after.

The Flag ship had been defeated. The Nirvana crew instantly began jumping up and down for joy. Even Magno was seen jumping a few times, until her back told her she was too old for such childish things. Among all the cries of joy, a light gasp could be heard. Despite all the noise, the gasp sounded like a gun shot. Everyone turned to Ezra, the only person not crying for joy.

Her hands were cupped over her mouth as she cried. She wasn't crying for joy, but crying over something else. This quickly caught their attention. The Bridge bunnies quickly ran to her side, even BC was there to help. What they saw on her screen quickly had them doing the same thing.

"What's the matter?" Magno asked.

"The… the… Freedom… it's… it's… it's been destroyed!" Ezra broke down after saying that. Magno let out a loud gasp of shock. She quickly looked at her screen, and soon was shaking her head at the sight before her. Next to a picture of the Freedom, lay the words "Signal Terminated" in bold red letters.

Magno pressed a button on her panel, opening a channel to Gascgone who was holding a large bottle of Wine in one hand, and two cups in the other. "Gascgone." Gascgone turned to the screen, smiling. "I need you to head to these coordinates to see if Alex is alive." Gascgone dropped her bottle of Wine and two cups with that. Her image was instantly gone as she ran out of the Registry Room to find the pilot.

(-)

Hibiki sighed as his hatch door opened. He was tired, and there was no two ways around it. He wasn't even aware that someone was beside him until Jura scooped him up and started kissing him on the cheek. "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" He yelled. Dita scooped him up this time, knowing full well that his rage energy was probably just as tired as his normal energy was.

"I was simply thanking you for saving our butts back there." She told him, a smile on her face.

"Thanks, but I think we need to be thanking Demon the most since he did draw most of the force away from us." Hibiki admitted rather tiredly before almost collapsing in Dita's arms.

"This is no time to celebrate!" Pyoro screamed as he floated up to Hibiki and Dita. A display appeared on his face/screen that showed five Harvest Flag ships changing course. "The enemy Flag you just destroyed sent out a distress beacon, and now the five Harvest Flag ships are heading straight for Taraaku and Mejarru!"

"Everyone, this is your Captain speaking." Magno's voice echoed throughout the Nirvana's speaker system. "I'm sorry to be the one to inform you, that we have lost one of our own. I'm sorry to tell you, that the Freedom… has been destroyed." Everyone gasped. Everyone fell into despair with that.

Hibiki crashed to his knees as he tried to digest the information. He couldn't believe it. Dita fell on her butt as she tried to believe it was a lie. His machine wasn't in the hanger, and he wasn't their partying with them, so her lie was pretty hard for her to believe. Jura fell on her butt and began crying. Barnette was actually the only one not crying or in disbelief of what she just heard. Meia was the second one to not cry, but that was because she didn't want to be seen as weak in front of her comrades.

"I won't give up." Everyone turned to the sound of voice. It was Hibiki. "I won't give up. Alex told me that he fought for those whose voices' had been silenced. I say we fight for his now. We now have to take the path we have to take"

(-)

"We have to take the path we have to take, huh?" Magno mussed. "It looks like Alex might have rubbed off on him."

"It would appear so." BC replied.

(-)

In a dark room, stood six figures that were watching a video feed of the Freedoms' destruction. "So, the Freedom has been destroyed?" one of figures spoke, turning off the monitor.

"Looks like it." another replied.

"What about the pilot?" another voice asked. "Do we know anything about the pilot?"

"Unfortunately, our comrade that was in the area has dropped out of radio contact. His signal has been terminated as well."

"And now we have the dilemma of the new machine. What are we going to do with it? We can't choose another pilot like we did for the Akatsuki. This one will be harder to place than that machine."

"I will not consider a new pilot until I have his body. We will not consider him dead until I have his body lying before me. For the time being, he shall be listed as MIA."

"Yes, Ma'am." The rest said in unison.

(-)

Meia looked down at the Chess Board of their last game. She smiled sadly at the sight before her. Her King was in Checkmate and she knew it, but she refused to believe it. His Queen and Rook were blocking the exits the King had, while his two Knights made sure it couldn't move without being killed, and were being aided by his White Bishop which was what had her in Checkmate. His King was protected by his Black Bishop and four Pawns that he used to block himself in to make it harder for her to get him. She just stared at it, not knowing whether to start crying for him, or to just throw the Chess set at the wall and then start crying. She just started laughing for some reason.

"Even in death, you still beat me, huh?" she whispered a few minutes later as she sat down and started crying for him.

A/N. This wasn't a dream for those of you who are going to question me on that. Now that the First Stage is done, I can go over to the Second Stage, meaning this story is actually done. For the end of the second stage, I however need some help. I need some help on choosing some mass production mobile suits that you would like. I intend to use only a few, so I'm sorry for those that don't get selected. I know a few web sites that have lost of information on the suits, so that won't be a problem. Like always, please Review and Read.


End file.
